The New and Old Tales of Naruto
by Nightocean
Summary: Naruto is thrust back into the past, where she must change the future. The world will never be the same, where a new and more powerful Naruto takes the stage. Fem!Naruto Time traveling fanfic.
1. Chapter 1: Back to the Past

Hey Everyone. This is my first Fanfiction, so please be gentle with me. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm also looking for a beta reader, for I can't spell for my life. There will be some spoilers, you have been warned. Also some of the story won't match up will the manga or anime, so please excuse that. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. Now enjoy!

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.  
**

**(Yes, I know that the Prologue is extremely short)**

**Prologue**

The area was covered in a blinding white light. It lit up the sky, where it could be seen for miles. Everyone who saw it felt a chill down their back. Everyone knew something big had occurred and wished it wasn't anything bad. God knows, they had already faced enough suffering. What more could they take.

**Chapter 1**

Her eyes felt heavy. Actually her whole body felt heavy, she couldn't lift a limb. She wondered what had happened. She couldn't remember anything.

**"Kit, Wake up." **She knew that voice, it was a voice of her closest companion. She tried to respond, but had no energy to.

**"Kit, I demand you wake up. Hmph. Sometimes I wonder why I put up with such a weak vessel."** Now that mad her mad. Her anger allowed her to wake up from her fatigue.

**"Shut up, Kurama. I'm trying to sleep here, and your not helping any."** Naruto told her bijue and somewhat reluctant friend. She was still to tired to open her eyes.

**"...Human, never speak to me like that again. I'll forgive you this once, but you need to wake up dobe, something isn't right."** Kurama, a.k.a the nine-tailed fox, demanded. The way he said that made Naruto tense up. He almost sounded worried, and when Kurama was worried, you knew that it was bad. Real bad. She finally opened her eyes, and was instantly confused. She was staring at a familiar ceiling. She looked around her, and was even more confused.

'Wait isn't this my old apartment. But it was destroyed.' She sat up, looking around her. No this wasn't possible. The place looked exactly as when she first moved in after she was kicked out of the orphanage. She brought her hand to move her hair out of her eyes and instantly froze. She stared at her hand, mouth open. It was small. She patted herself and looked at her body. She was no longer in her eighteen year old body. But in a kids body. She ran up to the mirror, and it confirmed her suspicions. She seemed to be around five years old again. She closed her eyes and instantly tried to release herself from the genjutsu. When she opened her eyes she found that nothing had changed. She started to panic.

**"Naruto, calm down and look for a calendar."** For once she obeyed him without questioning him. Her eyes widened when she looked at the year. She was in fact five years old.

"But how." She tried to recall her memories. The forth shinobi war had finally ended, and she had defeated Madara. Tsunade named Naruto her successor for the role of Hokage and was training her to become one. The last thing she remembered was doing paperwork with Tsunade and than doing some training afterwords.

**"Hmm...I also do not recall what has happened and I doubt we can do anything about it. I have never in my thousands of years of existing have ever heard of a time travel jutsu. Even if one should exist, there would not be one in this time-period. For no human has the capacity to make one and perform one, it would take a massive amount of chakara to do. It might be even to difficult for you kit, and you have the greatest chakara capacity of all humans."** Kurama told her.

**"You mean we are stuck here, with no way back."** There were many things that Naruto would never give up on, but even she knew that this was out of her league. The only thing she could do was survive. Wait! If she was in the past, that means that she could change things. Naruto eyes lit up in joy, she could make sure her friends didn't face all the pain that they did. Jiji, Asuma sensei, Ero-senin, and Neji didn't have to die. Sasuke family didn't have to die. She could make sure that Garra didn't feel all the pain that he did, and make sure that Neji's father didn't die either. She could stop the Akatsuki now and stop war from coming. Her mind processed everything that she could do.

She paused for a minute. Even if she could, should she. Should she mess with fate and change the future. Her actions could cause major consequences. Her mind soon became overloaded from to much thinking.

'Forget that, I'm here now and there is no way that I'm not going to help my friends. I'm not scum. Believe it.' she thought recalling Kakashi sensei words to her a long time ago.

Kurama smirked at her thoughts 'This girl never ceases to amuse and amaze me. I guess I should help her out.' **"Listen here punk, if you are going to do all that, you need to regain your strength. Your body is back to a five year old, you need to readjust to it. Test your jutsus to see if they work." **Kurama told her.

Naruto immediately made the sign for a shadow clown, and one popped up. Next she tried the Rasengan and was able to form it easily.

**"Ok kit, it seems you retained your jutsus and chakara control and you also still have your full chakara capacity. Next try to summon a toad and see if it works."** Naruto tried but it failed to work.

**"Hmm, It seems that since you haven't formed a contract yet, you cant summon anymore. We will find a way around that later, though I still think toads are inferior. The only thing you can work on know is your speed, stamina, and strength. You also need to readjust to your body, you will be used to having longer limbs and thus will most likely be clumsier than you normally are."** Kurama lectured her. He noticed her smirking at him. **"What dobe." **Her grin just got wider.

**"Oh nothing, just didn't think you cared so much."** Naruto smugly stated.

Kurama immediately became defensive. **"Don't think so highly of yourself. I have no use for a weak vessel. If you were to die it would be to troublesome for me."** Naruto continued to grin at him, he wasn't fooling her.

**"Che, Just don't die kit," **

**"Don't worry, I won't." **Naruto promised him.

"**Who said I was worried."** Kurama murmured, but couldn't quite make it convincing. Naruto couldn't wipe the smile off her face. No matter what he said, she knew he cared and it made her warm inside. She wasn't used to many people caring about her even now. With that taught, she went back to thinking about what she should do next. Kurama was right, she needed to get back to her strength or she wouldn't be able to do anything. She wondered if she should go to Jiji and tell him, she asked Kurama.

**"It would be best if you didn't. Humans are greedy creatures. Even if the Hokage didn't use your knowledge, someone could easily find out if you let it out. They will abuse the knowledge of the future, the less people who know the better. We should only tell him if the need is dire, for now its better to work in the background. Who would expect a gaki to do anything, the more they underestimate you, the easier it will become for you to move about. When we can't do anything without help, than should consider telling him."** Naruto frowned, she really wanted to tell Jiji and didn't want to lie to him, but she understand where Kurama was coming from and he was right.

**"Relax Kit, even if you cant tell him it doesn't mean you cant prove yourself a little. If show your strength little by little, you wont be suspicious, and eventually he and others will acknowledge you."** Naruto nodded, she knew he was right and just being able to see all those she had lost would be enough for now. She had missed them so much.

**"Luckily you haven't entered the academy yet, so no one has any expectations of you. So no one will be suspicious that you got better at everything all of a sudden"**

Ughh, she forgot all about that. **"I have to go back there, I hated it at the academy it was so boring and the teachers and kids all hated me."**

**"Kit, yes you will have to, if you want to be a Konoha ninja again, and now it will probably be easier for you to be friends with them than before."** Kurama in his own way tried to raise her spirits.

**"I hope your right, I really do Kurama."** She fell back on her bed and went to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Getting up to speed

**Chapter 2**

One week later

Naruto had been working hard at getting back her strength. She did a mind boggling amount of push ups, curl ups, and other exercises. She henged into the body of a random faced genin, and ran laps around the village. She also practiced throwing her shurikens and kunais. Naruto also fought against her shadow clone, to get used to her body. Slowly but surely she was making progress, soon she would far surpass anyone her age.

Since the week she arrived in the past, she hadn't run into any of her friends nor the Hokage. It was killing her not to meet them, but she knew that she had to train for now, before she entered the academy in two days. She had to make the most of her free time, and training was in fact one of her biggest hobbies.

Naruto also hated leaving her apartment. Everyone had gone back to glaring at her, and looking at her with those eyes. She could still hear them whispering about her, and calling her all sorts of names, but their favorite was demon. She had somewhat forgotten how hurtful that was, for they hadn't stared at her like that for awhile in her time. Shop keepers refused to sell to her, or raised the prices to high for her to buy. Restaurant owners through her out and refused to serve the 'demon' brat. She had to henge every time she went out to buy something to fool them. It was something she learned to do long ago, for self preservation. The only time she didn't henge when she went out, was when she went to Ichiraku's Ramen, for Teuchi and Ayame still served her happily. Ramen would forever remain her favorite dish of all time.

She looked down at herself. Her cloths were in rags, by all the training she had done. She had to get new cloths, and she dreaded that fact. She had no patience for shopping, all she needed was something durable and comfy to wear and she would be happy. Living alone for so long had taught Naruto how to be fiscal and manage her money better.

Naruto henged into a young gennin girl and went to the shinobi clothing store. Though she looked around she couldn't find the orange jumper that she was so fond of.

**"****Brat grow up and find something more practical than that jumper. It was to bright and baggy for a true ninja."** Kurama berated her past clothing.

**"****Oh, be quite. I loved that jumper, and even with it I'm still an amazing ninja. Believe it!"** Kurama just sighed, knowing that there was no winning with her on this matter. Naruto on the other hand looked even harder for her beloved jumper, but couldn't find it. She sighed and decided to give up on it. She instead found a black sweat shirt and pants. Both had an orange strip running down the side, because she absolutely refused to give up on the orange color. Both were also pretty slim but durable, so she could train in them and they wouldn't effect her movement. She was about to buy a fishnet undershirt like the one that Shikamaru wore, but decided against it for she didn't really need protection with her fast healing and it would hinder her. She payed for the cloths with the money that she got monthly as an orphan. With no ninja jobs to do, she had to be very careful of how she spent her money. As soon as she went home, she decided to train some more until she passed out from exhaustion.

**"****You have to slow down kit. I know you want to become stronger but your young body can't handle this much stress. You will hurt yourself more than you will help, if you keep this training up."** Kurama scolded her.

**"****Heh! Your really like a mother hen aren't you Kurama. Who would have thought?**" Naruto teased her binju. Kurama practically snarled at her. If she were anyone else, she would have gotten killed right there and than. **"OK OK don't get so upset about everything furball. I'll listen to you if it'll make you feel better."** Naruto reluctantly agreed to lessen her training, but her training was still light years above anything her peers were doing. Naruto gave into her exhaustion and went to sleep.

The day before she had to attend the acadamy, Naruto decided it was time to pay the Hokaga a visit. She didn't bother disguising herself, knowing that if the ANBU caught her sneaking inside the Hokage tower in a Henge she would be in big trouble. She ignored the glares and whispers as she reached the tower. When she reached the door outside Jiji office, she smiled and greeted his secretary.

"Hey Nane, is he free." After seeing Naruto so many times, Nane had gotten used to Naruto and didn't bother glaring. She was still standoffish but she didn't hate the kid.

"Hello Naruto, yes you can see him now." Nane told her and went back to her work. Naruto swallowed nervously. It had been years since she had last seen Jiji and she couldn't help but be nervous. Hiruzen Sarutobi had been a grandfather in every way to her except for blood. He would always make time for her and tried to be their for her as much as he could. But as Hokage, he was often busy. None the less, he advised her, took her out for Ramen, was the only one who gave her gifts on her birthday, and tried to protect her as much as he could. He was the first person Naruto could be certain that cared for her, and thus losing him was one of the hardest things of her life.

'Will he still look at me with fond eyes, will he still care for me?' She thought unable to help herself. Naruto knew that he would, but deep down inside she still feared rejection. Naruto took a deep breath and brought a smile to her face. She was ready to face him.


	3. Chapter 3: Meeting the Hokage

Hey Everyone. This is my first Fanfiction, so please be gentle with me. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm also looking for a beta reader, for I can't spell for my life. There will be some spoilers, you have been warned. Also some of the story won't match up will the manga or anime, so please excuse that. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Now enjoy!

Thank You Gabyy3, HjLostDreams, Mitobu, Scarlet Clown, SinfulOne, Trucina, lildevil95 for following/favorting this story. It means a lot to me.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

**Chapter 3**

As she opened the door, her smile morphed into a real one. The image before was just so familiar it warmed her heart. Jiji was sitting in his desk, surrounded by paperwork. He looked exactly the same as she remembered him, with all of his wrinkles still there. As he looked up from what he was doing, he gave her a big smile. Seeing it made her practically glow from within. He was back and this time she would do everything she could to keep him alive, she vowed to herself.

"Naruto I was beginning to worry about you. The weeks been quite without your pranks." Jiji said chuckling. He pushed aside his paperwork and motioned for her to sit. Naruto couldn't keep the grin off her face.

"Don't worry, Jiji. I'm planning an epic prank soon." She couldn't help boasting.

Hiruzen tried his best to stop his laugh, "Oh dear, why oh why did I bring that up? There's no telling what you will do. I'll warn the ANBU and jonin ahead of time."

"I don't know why you bother, they can never catch me anyway." Naruto bragged immensely enjoying her talk with her Jiji.

Hiruzen grumbled, "How is it possible that the elite of the elite can't catch a five year old girl?" He decided that he had to up their training. Naruto wouldn't find this out for years later, but she was one of the reasons why the ANBU and jonin of Konoha were so elite. Every time they failed to catch her, their training got tougher, and trying to catch her was training in itself. The ANBU and jonin named chasing her the greatest stealth and speed training of all time. It was now an initiation for the new shinobi joining their ranks to try and catch her.

Hiruzen decided to let the topic drop when he noticed what she was wearing. "New cloths, Naruto? I must say that they fit a future shinobi quite well."

"Thank Jiji, I couldn't find my regular jumpsuit and picked this one instead." Hiruzen kept his laugh to himself. It was a good thing he banned the store from selling those jumpsuits. Now he didn't have to worry about her getting herself killed, for sticking out like a sour thump in the middle of the forest. But if she ever found out what he did, he knew she might kill him, Hokage or not.

Suddenly Hiruzen took a closer look at her face. He wasn't Hokage for nothing, Hiruzen was an extremely smart and perspective man. Not even old age could change that. 'There was something different about Naruto', he thought as his eyes roamed her face. She was still a baby faced gaki, but he knew something was different. Suddenly he noticed it. It was her eyes. Naruto's eyes didn't reflect back on him eyes that a five year old had, this was usual for Naruto for she had lived a hard childhood. But today, impractically, her eyes were that of a much older individual. Someone who contained much wisdom and was world weary. They were the eyes of someone who had seen and faced death countless times. He often saw these eyes on veterans who returned from the wars, but he never thought that little Naruto would ever have these eyes. It scared him. Naruto was not meant to have those eyes for as long as possible. He wasn't dumb, he knew that Naruto would eventually be a fine shinobi and would face more hardships. But Naruto would always be little Naruto to him, the knucklehead gaki who was always getting into trouble.

Something was wrong, no five year old could have that look, least of all Naruto. Hiruzen immediately felt suspicion. But before he went any further, he suddenly saw a hint of fear in her eyes. When Naruto had first walked in she practically glowed with happiness that he hadn't seen on her in a long time, now her face was getting apprehensive. No matter what his suspicions were he hated the look on her face, it was the same face she had whenever she feared rejection by someone. That look was a punch to Hiruzen's gut. For now he would have to push his suspicions aside if only to get that look off her face.

Naruto was worried. Jiji had been staring at her face for a while now, and she could tell that he didn't like what he saw. First his eyes widened, and than his face became closed off. She didn't know what to do. 'Did he figure her out? Is he mad at me? Will he believe me? Will he let me stay?' Naruto was panicking. She may be eighteen mentally, and had seen some horrific things but she was still a kid in a lot of way. If the one person she could count on in this time-period rejected her, she didn't know if she could take it.

Suddenly Jiji face broke out in a smile, and Naruto couldn't help but feel relieved. If he was smiling at her, it meant her fears weren't true right? Her fears were completely alleviated with his next words. "Lets go get some Ramen, Gaki. I need a break from my paperwork."

Naruto practically beamed up at him and nodded her head. They went to Ichiraku's Ramen. Even at a young age, Naruto could eat multiple bowls of the stuff without ever feeling full. Jiji smiled at her antics. They had been talking about various topics for a while now and then Jiji started talking about the academy. He told her what she would be learning, and lectured her to be on her best behavior. Naruto couldn't help but tune him out then. For one thing she had already been to the academy and seen everything it had to offer. Plus Naruto on her best behavior, ha Naruto didn't have a best behavior. Her eyes practically gleamed of what she could do tomorrow. She knew exactly how she was going to prank those teachers who had purposefully failed her. 'This was going to be fun' she thought with glee.

Seeing as he was preaching to a deaf audience, Hiruzen let Naruto go. When she waved goodbye and turned around to head home, Hiruzen couldn't help but frown a little. Naruto was still Naruto. It was obvious that she was still a gaki But certain times during his conversations with her, she seemed much more mature than he had ever seen her being. He decided to keep a closer eye on her, but for now he wouldn't interfere with her. He only hoped he was making the right decision.

* * *

On her way to her apartment, Naruto began to feel people starting to approach her. She groaned she couldn't believe she forgot to henge.

"Hey look its the Demon brat." One of them said.

'Really couldn't they think of something original for once?' Naruto thought, getting ready to run.

"Lets see how tough she is now, why don't we?" Another two started started to approach her.

"That demon brat killed my family. Lets make her pay." Four more surrounded her. Naruto tensed. This unfortunately wasn't an unfamiliar scene to her. The villagers would often do this to her, and sadly she couldn't run away most of the time. She was often beat up, but luckily because of Kurama she healed by the next day. But the beating still hurt. She was often saved by the ANBU, but they couldn't save her until it was clear she was in danger. If they did the citizen council would complain against the Hokage, saying that the ninja attacked them unnecessary. Not many would come to her defense and the few protectioms she had would disappear. Naruto knew that the Hokages hands were tied and she didn't blame him, he did for her as much as he could against a village that was out for her blood.

She had actually gotten close to some of her ANBU protectors, though she never found out who they were. They would save her the second they felt her life was in jeopardy, take her home and than bandaging her up. Suddenly a light bulb went on in her head. She knew who some of them were. The leader of the ANBU had white hair that defied gravity and a dog mask. There could only be one person like that, Kakashi sensei. Her heart warmed at the thought that he had been protecting her all this time, even if he was a lazy pervert.

Naruto continued to dodge the fists coming at her as best she could with her small body. Her attackers were becoming confused for they couldn't land a solid hit on her and were beginning to tire. Naruto decide that enough was enough and she was tired of them. When the next punch was thrown at her, she jumped on top of the attackers hand and used it as a spring to get onto roof. She jumped from roof to roof and finally reached her apartment. She collapsed unto her bed and fell asleep.


	4. Chapter 4: Future Plans for friends

Hey everyone. This chapter is a little different from the others. One of the biggest things I want to establish in this story is Naruto's friendship and bonds with the other. For it, I wanted a chapter that reflected his goals for each of his friends in the academy. The next chapter will move back to the style of the old ones. Enjoy! Next chapter should be up in a few days.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter four

Naruto was nervous. Today would be the first time her friends would meet her in this time line. She was never allowed to play with other kids growing up, the adults kept the kids far away from her. But at the academy, the parents weren't here to do that. The teachers would try but they couldn't really watch all the kids at once. The last time she entered the academy, the kids had stayed away from her due to what their parents told them. Honestly she couldn't blame the parents, even if they were ignorant and wrong, they were still just trying to protect their kids. But this time she wouldn't let them stop her from protecting her friends. She would do everything she could to make them stronger and become stronger herself to protect them and make sure they would be ready for anything. Even if she had to go against everyone there. She would also be the greatest friend she could be for them. Her friends had saved her from her bleak existence, now it was time for her to save them.

Sasuke hadn't lost his family yet and if she had anything to say about it, he would never have too. The Sasuke of this time knew how to smile and he knew how to be a kid. She would make sure that he never lost that. Though it was obvious he was still arrogant and prideful, she would just beat that out of him eventually. She also knew that he tried everything possible to catch up to him older brother and make his father proud. She would be the rival that allowed him to do that. Sasuke also tended to bottle up all his emotions and this time she would make sure he didn't. She would make him talk to her even if it killed him to do so.

Hinata didn't have any confidence in herself. She was too gentle to hurt anyone and that led her to be shot down by her family. But even with all her gentleness, Hinata had the ability to become a great ninja. All she needed was someone to encourage her and that someone would be Naruto. She would make sure that Hinata would gain confidence in herself and show her potential and strength to everyone including her father. Hinata had once told her in the future that she wanted to change the ways of her family and join the main and branch family of the Hyuga. Naruto would help her accomplish this. Naruto would also make sure that Neji would never feel trapped again. She would save his father from being killed and take away the seal that kept him down. She would knock his arrogance a peg or two down while she was at it. She would make sure Hinata and Neji never felt below anyone and free them from there burdens.

Naruto didn't know much about Shino, but she wanted to. No one should be alone and Naruto knew that better than anyone else. Shino spent most of his childhood alone for he was quite and not many understood him or his abilities. Naruto would be sure to be the friend he needed and the person he could talk to. She knew he cared a lot about his insects and she greatly respected that. She also knew that, though he didn't show it often Shino was smart. Whenever he talked people listened, for he often spoke the truth. One thing that bugged her was that she rarely saw him smile, if ever. She swore that she would make him smile more.

Kiba had always annoyed Naruto. He was loud, annoying and smug. But Naruto also knew that Kiba was the most loyal friend someone could have. Once you had earned his loyalty, he would never turn his back on you. Naruto would make sure she earned his loyalty, and make sure no one took advantage of Kiba's surprising naivete. He was also Naru greatest partner in crime when it came to pranks, for he enjoyed them almost as much as her. Kiba was also kind in his own weird way. Look at how much he cared for Akamaru. Only someone who had a big heart, could love and care for another like that. She had also seen how protective he was of anyone he considered a friend. She would give Kiba and Akamaru a true friend that they could depend on.

Choji was her eating partner, no one could keep up with her as well as he could in eating ramen. Choji was often bullied as a child for he was fat. Naruto would make sure to beat up anyone who ever bullied her friend. There was so much more to Choji than his eating habits. Choji was sweat. He was kind to everyone who mattered to him. At first glance he didn't seem to be that smart, but whoever thought that was wrong. Choji could often tell the true nature of people. It was hard not to like Choji and she would do her best to protect him as much as she could.

Naruto had met many tough kunoichis in her day. But the female peer that she most looked up to was Tenten. Tenten had always been hard working. When the majority of her peers were distracted by other things, Tenten had been working hard to become a legendary kunoichi. Though sadly she didn't spend much time with Tenten, Naruto greatly admired her. Naruto knew that Tenten would be a great friend. Naruto decided this time around she would befriend Tenten and help her as much as much as she could.

Lee worked harder than anyone she had ever met. Though he had some weird quirks, there was no doubt that Lee was a great guy. Though he had no talent for ninjutsu and genjutsu, he hadn't let that stop him. His hard work had overcome his lack of talent and he became one of the greatest taijutsu shinobi there ever was. Naruto wanted to be there for him. She wanted to encourage him in his dream and train with him.

If two friends couldn't be anymore alike and never admit it, it would be Sakura and Ino. They both had incredible strength and willpower. If there were two kunoichis that you never wanted to mess with it would be these two. One could physically beat you up till you couldn't stand any more and the other could mentally break you. Not a good combination to go up against. Sakura had the strength to beat up anybody. She was quick tempered, so you really needed to watch what you said around her or you would get a bump on your head the size of a baseball. Sakura was also incredibly book-smart. She had incredible chakara control which in turn made her the best medical-nin after Tsunade. Ino similarly was equally quick tempered, fierce, and a great medical-nin. She could take control of your mind and she had and an extensive knowledge about poisons. The one obstacle that was preventing them from being the incredible shinobis that they could be early on was that they were both huge fangirls of Sasuke. If Naruto had one goal in mind for them, other than becoming a great friend to them both, was to break them out of their fangirl phase and set them on the path that they were meant to be on.

Last but definitely not least there was Shikamaru. Honestly she didn't know what to do about Shikamaru. Shikamaru was her opposite in many ways. He was lazy, hated responsibility, thought everything was to troublesome, and just wanted to laze his days away. But he was more than that. He was a genius. He could think a hundreds steps ahead of anybody maybe even more. Though he called himself a coward, Shikamaru would be the first to put his life in danger in order to save his friends. Though he found it troublesome, Shikamaru would flawlessly lead the people around him. Once he had set his mind on something, he became so determined that nothing could stop him. He would protect the next generation. Shikamaru was also a great friend. He was Choji first friend and now they had a friendship so strong that nothing could break their bond. What was more was that Shikamaru in a lot of ways was her best friend. Even though she was the exact type of women he found so troublesome and wanted to avoid, he never did. While he might have been too lazy to ever actually play with her as a child and go against his mom, he never rejected her. After Sasuke had left, Shikamaru was the one that she could turn to for anything. When Jiraiya had died, he was the one who was successful in cheering her up. When she would became Hokage it was obvious that he would become her chief adviser, even if she had to force to do it. She couldn't do much for him. She would cloud watch with him. She would also prove his intelligence to everyone and challenge him to improve, even if he hated her for it. The most important thing she could do for him and really the only thing was to save Asuma sensei. She vowed to herself, that if she did nothing else for him it would be that.

Naruto sighed. She had so much to do but she vowed to herself that she would accomplish all of this for her friends. She was determined to make there lives better. Naruto straitened out, placed a smile on her face and barged into the academy.


	5. Chapter 5: Grand Entrance

Hey Everyone. This is my first Fanfiction, so please be gentle with me. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm also looking for a beta reader, for I can't spell for my life. There will be some spoilers, you have been warned. Also some of the story won't match up will the manga or anime, so please excuse that. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Now enjoy!

Thank you Zarek09, , lildevil95, oakphoenix, Gabyy3, HjLostDreams, Mitobu, Scarlet Clown, SinfulOne, Thunder Claw03, Trucina for fol/fav this story. It means a lot to me.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 5

Naruto was a bit ashamed to say that she would be coping someone elses technique. But in her mind there was no better way to introduce yourself with a bang. Naruto was actually a month late in entering the academy, for the academy wouldn't accept her until the Hokage got involved. So all the other kids had already met, plus she was actually younger than them all by two years. Normally you had to be seven to enter the academy, but after pleading with Jiji for days on end he relented. She would make him proud. Naruto was determined to leave a lasting impression. When the Derma Sensei, someone who had made Naruto experience at the academy hell, announced to the class that there would be another student joining them, Naruto set forth her plan. She through a smoke bomb in from of the class.

The rest of Naruto's class were startled. When the smoke subsided, they saw a small girl standing in front of the class with a huge grin on her face. They had never seen someone who looked like before. She had three distinctive characteristics. She had her golden blond hair tied up in a tiny ponytail, the brightest blue eyes, and three scars that looked like whiskers on each side of her face. All in all she was a pretty cute kid. But this wasn't what started them, behind her was a banner hanging from the ceiling, supported by two kunias. The sign read in big, bold, letters: NARUTO UZUMAKI.

"Hey, I'm Naruto Uzumaki and I'll be the greatest shinobi who ever lived. Believe it!" She announced to the class and through another kunia above them. Everyone's eyes followed the kunia. It hit a large balloon high in the ceiling that wasn't there yesterday. As the balloon popped, confetti fell on top of all the kids. Everyone in the class had there mouth open stunned, except for the girl in front of the class who was making a piece sign. They all had various different thoughts.

'Hmm...How troublesome.'

'That was so cool. But I could have done better. This confetti is making Akamaru sneeze'

'She seems nice. Ah! The confetti is getting in my food.'

'...My insects are being agitated. Interesting.'

'She's so brave.'

'Who is this random little girl and why is she so good with throwing kunais. Hmm, it doesn't matter I'm still better than her.'

'Why is Sasuke staring at her. She better not try to get close to him, like ino-pig'

'Why is Sasuke staring at her. She better not try to get close to him, like big forehead.'

**"Nice going gaki, you just proved yourself as the number one hyperactive, knucklehead ninja again. You dobe, they all think that your in idiot now. Not that they would be wrong. Nice first impression"** Kurama snickered.

**"Shut up Kurama, they think I'm cool and you know it." **Naruto defended herself.

**"What ever you say Gaki."** Kurama couldn't help but laugh again. Naruto ignored him in favor of absorbing the image of her friends. She had missed this innocent and happy side of them. The faces of kids, who hadn't face many hardships yet. She couldn't help but feel great joy. She continued on talking before the the idiot sensei could get a hold of himself.

"If you want you can call me Naruto or Naru if you prefer. I love ramen and training. My dream is to surpass all the Hokages someday and bring peace to the world. Believe it!" Before she could say anything more, the teacher started to glare at her.

"That's enough out of you kid. Sit in the empty seat over there and you will stay after class to clean up this mess." He scolded her. "Listen up kids, this girl is what a failure looks like, so don't become like her. Better yet don't associate yourself with her." Durma sensei looked at her in disgust. Naruto started to tune him out, after years of practice it became second nature to her. When she sat in the empty seat she noticed that she was sitting next to Shikamaru. On his other side was Choji and to her right was Sasuke and next to him was Kiba. In front of Kiba and Sasuke were Ino and Sakura. In front of him was Shino and next to him was Hinata. It looked like they were all together again minus Neji, Lee and Tenten. 'This was going to be fun' Naruto thought.

One random kid raised his hand "Um Durma Sensei what does associate mean" he asked. Naruto couldn't help but snicker quietly. Durma's face went red at having his lecture on the evils of the devil brat interrupted. Durma stuttered while trying to answer the kids question, while the rookie nine mostly ignored him.

"Hey, the names Kiba and this guy here is Akamaru. How'de you do that." Kiba asked. The rest of the rookie nine turned there heads, wanting to the answer too.

"Heh, I just rigged that balloon up last night." Naruto explained. "I'm also pretty good at throwing kunais, I can help you guys train if you want. She grinned, hoping they would take the bait.

"Keh, sure why not." Kiba responded. That's one.

"Troublesome." He hadn't refused. Two down.

"..." Three

"umm..I..would..like...that." Four

"Are you bringing any snacks" Five

"As if a nobody could ever beat me. I'll beat the arrogance out of you." Six

"If Sasuke is going than I'm going." Two voices spoke simultaneously. That made seven and eight.

'Man that was easier than I expected.' Naruto scratched her head while laughing. Choji than introduced everyone to her. The teacher was glaring at them. No doubt planning her punishment. Suddenly Naruto started to hear some other kids talk about her.

"My mom told me to stay away from." Whispered one girl to another.

"Ya, my dad said the same thing. Saying that girl was nothing but trouble and not to get involved with her." Whispered another boy.

"My mom said that she was a monster." Whispered someone else. Naruto was determined to ignore them all. The rest of the Rookie nine immediately looked away from her. She saw the second realization came over them. The only person who didn't react was Shikamaru, who had probably already realized who she was. She didn't blame them from looking away. All of their families either contained civilians or family members who had lost their lives during the Nine-tailed foxes attack. Their families couldn't help but hold a little resentment against her and they had no doubt passed some of that down to their kids. While they didn't know why their parents resented Naruto, they were all told to stay away from her. Even though she understated, Naruto couldn't help but feel hurt that her friends were rejecting her. Granted that they didn't know that she was their friend yet. Naruto wouldn't let this keep her down. She would find a way to get close to them. When class was over and Naruto finished cleaning up the mess, she headed to the Hokage office. He had told her to meet him after her class, and she wanted to talk to him about something anyway.

-to be continued-

Gabyy3. Thank you for taking the time to review. I feel the same way when I see someone foll/fav my story. It really does make me want to write more, and gives me more motivation. So I felt that i really needed to thank everyone who did do that. I think I will eventually make the prologue longer, its just that when i first started writing it, I didn't want to give to much away on how she ended up in the past. I'm kind of stuck on what to say there. English is also not my first language and the only reason why there's not many misspelled words or grammar mistakes, is because of the miracle that is known as spell check. I'm happy that you enjoyed reading so far.


	6. Chapter 6: Requesting training

Hey Everyone. This is my first Fanfiction, so please be gentle with me. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm also looking for a beta reader, for I can't spell for my life. There will be some spoilers, you have been warned. Also some of the story won't match up will the manga or anime, so please excuse that. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Now enjoy!

Thank you Zarek09, , lildevil95, oakphoenix, Gabyy3, HjLostDreams, Mitobu, Scarlet Clown, SinfulOne, Thunder Claw03, Trucina for fol/fav this story. It means a lot to me.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 6

After getting the go ahead from Jiji's secretary, Naruto barged into his office. Jiji smiled at her.

"Quite an impact you made today. Do you have anything to say anything for yourself." Jiji tried to look stern but he couldn't completely conceal his amusement.

"It was great wasn't it." Naruto said completely unrepentant, mischief in her eyes. Hiruzen couldn't hold his laughter any longer. There was no winning with her. He felt exasperated. 'Why do I even try anyone.' He decided to steer the conversation away before he gave in to her even more.

"How you like your first day at the academy." Hiruzen noticed that she immediately avoided eye contact with him. His stomach sunk, he suddenly had a bad feeling.

"Oh, it was ok, I guess. We learned about chakara and making basic hand signs." Hiruzen saw that she was really uncomfortable with this topic. He sighed, he could easily guess why, before he could call her out on it. She did something that completely shocked him.

"Hey Jiji, I once saw someone use this jutsu when chasing me. Learning about hand signs today in class reminded me of it. So I decided to try it." Naruto processed to preform a shadow clone jutsu. "It's so awesome isn't it. I'm awesome. Believe it." Both Naruto proclaimed to him. Hiruzen almost fell backwards in his chair. How in the world did a five year old not only learn a forbidden jutsu after only seeing it but have the chakara to pull it off? If Hiruzen didn't know any better he would think that Naruto was a genius, but he knew everything she did came from pure hard work. Hiruzen thought he might have to reevaluate Naruto. He knew she had a lot of potential but not this much.

Naruto knew she had to show him it. The shadow clone was her signature jutsu afterall and she knew that she couldn't avoid using it in the near future. It was better to show it to him now, rather than use it later and have him suspicious of her. Kurama agreed with her on this matter. It was better to show jiji some of her abilities when they were alone, so he could trust her a bit more. In the long run, she needed him to trust her to be able to accomplish all she wanted to. Now she needed to push up the bar a little and learn something more. She knew that she couldn't use the rasengan right away or she would really give herself away. She had to learn something new.

"Hey Jiji, someone asked in class today about the different types of affinities a shinobi could have. Can you tell me how I can find out my affinity. I've seen some of the other kids use jutsu like that and I want to do it too." She pleaded with him. She knew what would happen when she tried that chakara paper, and it would give her the perfect opportunity to expand her skill. Now all she needed was for him to agree to let her do it.

Hiruzen stared at Naruto. Part of him didn't want to let her do it. She was five years old for gods sake, and had much to learn before she could get to that point. The council would also not look to kindly on him letting her become more powerful. On the other hand, she had a point. There were clan kids who learned different element jutsus early on in life. Take the Uchihas for example, they taught their kids fire jutsus at a very young age. Naruto had already proven to him that she could preform a high level skill like the shadow clown without breaking a sweat. Plus Naruto needed more protection than most and he would do anything he could to keep her safe. He also knew that Naruto didn't have it in her to abuse her powers. Lastly he decided, looking at her pleading look, even if he said no, she would still find a way to learn it. It would be better if she learned it while being supervised rather than being reckless. A highlight was that he couldn't wait to rub it in the councils face of how advanced his pseudo adopted granddaughter was.

"Alright Naruto, I'll let you learn. Tomorrow you don't have school for the cloud shinobi are coming tomorrow to sign another treaty. Come back tomorrow after the festivals over, than we will talk about this some more." Hiruzen noticed a that a strange emotion fleeting across Naruto face before she nodded.

After Naruto had left his office, Hiruzen motioned for one of his ANBU. One showed up immediately on a knee. "Yes, Hokage sama."

"Bring me hound." Hiruzen ordered. The ANBU immediately shunshined away. Only a few minutes he reappeared with a dog masked ANBU operative. He motioned for all the other ANBU to leave.

"Hound you can take off your mask, for this assignment you need to go without it." The ANBU operative removed his make reveling an eighteen year old Kakashi Hatake.

Kakashi was one of his top operatives. Hiruzen could always count on him to get the job done. He could trust Kakashi for this job for multiple reasons. For one he was often on Naruto's protection squid when he wasn't on high-risk missions. Naruto was also the daughter of Kakashi's beloved sensei, and Kakashi would do whatever it took to keep her safe. Lastly, Hiruzen knew that no matter how much he hid it Kakashi was naturally fond of the girl. In a lot of ways, he was the perfect teacher for Naruto.

Hiruzen also felt that Naruto would do a lot of good for Kakashi. Kakashi often put on a mask that had nothing to do with his ANBU mask nor the mask that covered his face. It was a mask that hid his true feelings. Kakashi needed needed some joy and warmth in his life. The joy and warmth that had been cruelly ripped away from him to many times. Hiruzen knew that anyone who spent any time with Naruto and got to know her couldn't help but feel those emotions. Hiruzen was betting a lot on Naruto he knew, but he knew that she could do it.

The only down side to this arrangement was that Hiruzen feared that Kakashi might corrupt Naruto's innocent mind with the books he never put down. Even now he could tell that Kakashi wanted to reach for his little orange book.

"Kakashi I have a mission for you. This mission will be a long term one. You will need to use all yours skills and need all the patience you have to complete it. Consider it a S class mission " Hiruzen announced. Kakashi just raised an eyebrow at him and waited for him to continue.

"You are to train one Naruto Uzumaki." Hiruzen commanded. On the outside Hiruzen seemed perfectly somber and serious but on the inside he was laughing at the face Kakashi was making. Kakashi uncovered eye had widened and even though you couldn't see his mouth, you could tell it was hanging open.

"Hokage sama-" Kakashi tried to protest but was quickly cut off.

"You are the only one I can trust this with. Or would you rather have me give her to someone who will scorn her." Hiruzen knew he had won when he saw Kakashi eyes harden.

"Alright sir." Kakashi sighed and relented unhappily. He really did not want to take care of or train some brat. But there was no way, that he would make Naruto suffer anymore. By being her teacher, Kakashi reasoned, he could protect her better. Kakashi had hated it every time he saw Naruto covered in bruises and alone, but his hands were tied by the council. Even as ANBU he was only allowed to interfere when her life was clearly in danger. Now he had a legitimate way to keep Naruto safe. But spending most of his time with the brat was sure to be tiring.

As if reading his thoughts the hokage continued "You will be surprised and happy to know that Naruto has already shown some promise as a shinobi. She can summon shadow clones." Kakashi eye once again widened. A five year old, who could preform a shadow clone was unheard of. Maybe this wouldn't be so boring after all.

"She has requested to learn about element jutsus, so you will have to test her affinity. Your mission starts tomorrow after the festival ends, meet her here. Don't be late." The hokage ordered. Kakashi sighed once more. Having her train on jutsus would be a long process, well at least he could read his book while she trained. "Oh and Kakashi, it you ever show her the books you read...well lets just say you would not like what would happen to you." The hokage threatened him. Kakashi went pale, he knew that the old man was completely serious. This was going to be a huge headache.


	7. Chapter 7: Hyuga Incident

Hey guys. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm also looking for a beta reader, for I can't spell for my life. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. You will mostly see updates during weekends. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Now enjoy!

Thank you Oakphoenix, lovelies13, lildevil95,idea getthe, bloodyangel1457, Zarek09, Trucina, Thunder Claw03, The Never Yielding Queen, .kitten, SinfulOne, Scarlet Clown, RaAcziar, Mitobu, HjLostDreams, Gabyy3, Futakomori for foll/fav my story.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 7

Naruto was not having a good day. Naruto had wanted to wake up early today and stake out the Hyuga compound. Things didn't go as planned. First she woke up late and had to miss breakfast. Next, some of the villagers saw her and decided it would be a good idea to chase her. Now Naruto was racing towards the Hyuga clan house easily overtaking her pursuers, when she saw a foreign shinobi in front of Hinata.

Naruto had to act quick, she was about to form a rasengan, when she heard Kurama inside her head.

**"****Don't do it kit.**** Her father will notice you using that a mile away. You will have to think of some other way to save her."** Kurama was right, Hiashi Hyuga was the head of the clan for a reason. Naruto noticed that the foreign ninja had grabbed Hinata.

"You're coming with me brat." the shinobi growled.

By than, Naruto's pursuers were right behind her. So Naruto did the only thing she could think of. She ran towards him in lightning speed, and head butted him in the stomach.

"Why are you trying to kidnap Hinata, you idiot." She yelled. While he was down, she discretely hit a pressure point on her neck, to make him pass out. Naruto looked up to find Hiashi Hyuga staring at her. He had a mix of different emotions on his face, but what came through the most was relief. He was about to say something to her, when the crowd around her starting talking.

"Why did the demon brat attack the cloud ninja?" One of her pursuers asked.

"Did the cloud ninja just try to kidnap the Hyuga heir?" Another voice came up. Soon all the villagers were discussing the failed kidnapping attempt. By than ANBU had made it to the scene and grabbed the cloud ninja. Naruto used the commotion around her to escape.

Not even an hour later a ANBU operative appeared before her.

"Naruto Uzumaki, the Hokage has summoned you." Naruto sighed, she should have seen this coming. When she reached the tower she noticed that there was others there other than the Hokage. Hiashi was with two other members from the Hyuga clan. One was obviously a clan elder, while the other one was an exact copy Hiashi. 'So that's Neji's father. I'm in trouble aren't I."

Jiji spoke first, "Hello Naruto. Please tell us what happened earlier with the cloud shinobi." Everyone's eyes turned to her.

Naruto sighed and explained. "Well I was running through town, and I saw a strange man infront of the girl I go to school with. I remembered her because she had really cool eyes, named Byakugan. So anyway, I saw the strange ninja grab Hinata and he said that she was coming with him. It really looked like he was kidnapping her, and I didn't like that. So I head butted him and boy did he go flying back. I know I'm not supposed to hurt other but he deserved it. Kidnapping is bad. It doesn't matter if I get in trouble."

Most of the people looked at her with various degrees of amusement. Jiji broke the silence.

"No, Naruto you're not in trouble. You should feel proud of yourself. You did a great job in protecting young Hinate." Hiashi stepped in front of Naruto.

"I would like to thank you for saving my daughter. The Hyuga clan owes you a great clan debt in gratitude."

"It was nothing." Naruto murmured in embarrassment while rubbing the back of her neck. Hiashi gave her a rare tiny smile. "Oh ya, why did they want Hinata anyway." Naruto asked. The room tensed. Jiji looked at Hiashi in question, who nodded at him.

"Naruto, you mentioned before the Byakuganeyes correct." Naruto nodded at the Hokage. "Well the Byakugan eyes allow someone to see through things and even see a person's chakara system. It is a highly sought after ability." Jiji explained

"Ok, but why did they need Hinata, couldn't they grab another person from the Hyuga clan." Naruto pushed.

"No, they couldn't. The Hyuga clan is divided into the main and branch families. The branch family have a seal placed upon them, so that after they die they the Bakugan would be sealed with them forever. Only the main family does not have the seal, so only from them could someone potentially steal the secretes of theByakugan. Hinata is part of the main family." He purposely left the punishment part out of the explanation. The three members of the Hyuga clan remained quite during the whole explanation.

"Well that stupid." Naruto commented. The elder Hyuga member immediately bristled at his words and the Hokage turned to Naruto in reproach.

"It's true, think about it. Wouldn't it be better than to seal all the members of the Hyuga clan, so that no one could take the secret away. Hinata being almost kidnapped proved that. What's the point of a main and branch family?" Naruto said with more wisdom in her eyes than five year old could have.

"Listen hear you insolent girl. The Hyuga clan will always have follow the ways of our ancestors. Do not mock our ways."The elder glared at her.

Naruto turned to Hiashi. "You said that you owe me a clan debt right?" Naruto asked. The man simply nodded at her. "Than I want you to dissolve the main and branch families, and only have one family. I know you want to protect your ability, so have everyone in the family have a seal that seals away the Byakugan after they die. This way you can all be a big happy family and protect yourselves. Everyone wins right." Naruto proclaimed.

Hiashi Hyuga looked intently at the tiny girl in front of him. How was it that someone so young had so much wisdom? Hiashi, deep down inside, always knew the flaws of the traditions of the Hyuga clan. It was what kept him from forming a strong bond with his twin brother, something he had always regretted. But after years of trying to please his father and the council, he had become stuck in their ways and stopped seeing all the wrongs of his clan. This tiny girl in front of him, that was even younger than his oldest daughter, had the courage to bring the wrongs back into the light. She had given him a legitimate chance to change the clan into something better. No longer would he allow the council to dictate and destroy the future of his family. Hiashi, even though he had a hard time showing it, loved both his daughter dearly. He now had the chance to make sure they never felt the pain of separation that he had felt with his own brother. He could now also begin to repair and strengthen his relationship with his brother. It was ironic of how the girl who had no family had saved his family with her logic. The truth was by fulfilling her request, he and the Hyuga clan would owe her a bigger debt, for she had saved the future of their clan twice over. Hiashi knew that one day the girl in front of him would become someone great, and he would do everything in his power to make sure that she did. His thoughts were interrupted, when he heard in enraged voice.

The elder was infuriated, "Who do you think you-" he was about to protest when Hiashi raised his hand.

"We owe this girl a great debt. If it wasn't for her, the Byakugan secret could have been taken forever and my daughter would have been killed. We will honor her request." When the elder would have protested against it some more, Hiashi went on further to say, "We already gave her a clan debt, it would bring great shame on the Hyuga clan if we were to refuse her request. A clan debt is unbreakable. You know that as well as I, elder." The elder couldn't say anything against that, but it was clear that he was extremely unhappy.

"Please excuse us sir hokage, the clan has much to discuss. I also request that you contact Jiraya-san to help with the seal" Jiji nodded. Hiashi turned to Naruto and stated to her "Know that you are always welcome by the Hyuga." With that Hiashi turned away and left with the elder. Neji's father, Hizashi Hyuga, lingered. He got on his knees in front of Naruto, so that he could be on eye level with her.

"You are a good girl. I wish that my son Neji, will be as kind as you someday." With that he followed his brother out.

Hiruzen was speechless. How was it that one little girl had changed the ways of the rigid Hyuga clan, a feat that even he couldn't accomplish, in less than a day? Now the Hyuga could finally move to a better tommoow. Also Hiruzen didn't have to worry about the Raikaga retaliating, because the kidnapping attempt had a lot of witnesses. Not only that but because the kidnapper was still alive, the Raikage owed them a debt to keep the peace. All of this because of one girl. Hiruzen started to laugh so hard that he had to hold his sides. 'Oh god, only Naruto'

Naruto was confused. **"Why is he laughing like that."** she asked Kurama. To her surprise and bewilderment he started to laugh at her comment too."

**"No reason kit. He just saw a baka preform a miracle." **

**"Thanks...Hey!" **Naruto protested. Kurama just laughed harder at that.

Hiruzen noticed that Naruto was looking at him sullenly. After getting his urge to laugh under control, he smiled at her. "Naruto not only did you save a young girl, you have also potentially saved a whole clan today. I am so proud of you. You really do have an excellent chance of taking this hat away from me one day." Naruto beamed up at him.

"As for what we spoke about yesterday, I found you a teacher who will help you learn. In fact he should be here any minute, if he's not late." Jiji told her. Right then someone appeared on the window still. Naruto turned to see who it was.

"Yo." Spoke one Kakashi Hatake. Naruto wanted to slap her face in exasperation, how was it that Kakashi sensei ended up being her teacher again. She would be ecstatic that he was her teacher again if it wasn't for three things. One was that he was always late. It grated on her nerves waiting for him. Two was that he was always reading his perverted books. Was she destined to be surrounded by perverts all her life. Most important was that Kakashi was smart. It would be hard to keep things a secret from him. Naruto just mentally shook her head. The truth was that, she missed learning from him. She had been so busy after the war in her time-period, that she didn't really have the time to see him. She couldn't wait to juice him of all of his jutsus, he wouldn't know what hit him.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

**Futakomori:** Hi. I'm glad your liking my story so far. I think your kind of right when you said it felt some parts feel a little rushed, I think it ended up like that for three reasons. One reason is that I honestly have very little idea of what going to happen next in my story, I right it as it comes to me. I only have the vaguest of outlines in my head and even that's likely to change as this story progress. So I guess I'm really inexperienced in this area. Two is that at that point, where Naruto meets her friends for the first time, I felt that she would be really impatient to be friends with them again and her friends don't realize at first that she is the one her parents want to keep away from. All they know about her is that she is apparently really good at kunia throwing, and to them as kids who are training to be shinobi it would seem really appealing to see what this new girl can do. The third reason for why it seems rushed because I kind of wrote it in a hurry. I wrote the first few chapters all in a single day, and at times my imagination went bust. I was just in such in a hurry at times to write down the ideas that were in my head, that I didn't actually have a chance to elaborate on them. It's something I have to work on. Lol, I think why I refer to Naruto as a guy by mistake at times is because in between writing this story, I was also reading Naruto fanfiction from someone else, so I guess I did it unconsciously. But for some reason I think that Naruto makes a better than he does a guy, just my opinion though. Maybe I should just call her Naru from now on to avoid making that mistake. Naruto has one ponytail in this story and it is a bit longer than her shoulders. In my imagination, I just see Naruto being so irritated with to much hair. Anyway thank you for liking this story, and for taking the time to review. Also thank you for not trying to rush me, I have this unreasonable fear that if I don't update fast enough people will abandon this story. Guess its first timer writer nerves.

**idea getthe:** Don't worry, Itachi will have a role in her training as will some others eventually. I guess Kakashi is just an easier person to write about, since we know more about him. Also there is a reason why Naruto suggested chakara affinity training, she will be learning new things so it wont be the same old same old. Thank you for giving me the idea of exploding shadow clones, I might use that. Also thank you for pointing out my grammar mistake, it was supposed to say: "You dobe, they all think that your in idiot now. " I went back and fixed it. Thank you for taking the time to give me your opinion on this story, it was helpful.


	8. Chapter 8: Not so new teacher

Hey guys. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm also looking for a beta reader, for I can't spell for my life. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. You will mostly see updates during weekends. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Enjoy.

From now on I'll be using the name Naruto and Naru interchangeably so don't be to surprised by that.

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You SpunkyHellKitty, shadowfang jutsu, Arcangel0379, AutoCon1, DrZProductions, KitsuneNaru, Nacholoco, SeiryuNoAme, TheMysticDuo, Tsuarn, cherryblossom2013, dwilson654, illyachan, katsuchan21, skjadir, twilight663, Rose Night 3, GiuliaZe, MadSnow, Saskue's-Killer112 and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 8

"There is a reason I have a door, you know Kakashi. Please use it from time to time." Jiji broke her out of her thoughts.

"I wouldn't be much of a shinobi if I used a door, now would I?" Kakashi retorted. He turned to her. "So your Naruto" he remarked, not looking very impressed with what he saw.

"So your my teacher." she retorted. Hiruzen head turned from teacher to pupil to teacher. He was getting a kick out watching their interaction with each other. He knew this was a good idea.

"Hmmm...I already don't like you. Meet me at training ground seven in one hour." He told her before jumping of the window. Naru turned to her jiji and raised her eyebrows at him.

"Really jiji, how come I'm stuck with him. I can learn on my own, I don't need a teacher." She asked sullenly, memories of her past experiences with him suddenly resurfacing.

"Now, now Naruto. You do need a teacher, and he's the best jonin there is." Jiji tried to calm her. After ineffectively glaring at him she gave in, "Fine, but don't blame me if he gets pranked."

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Naruto was leaning against one of the wooden beams of training ground seven. She looked around the training ground, and had a reminiscent smile on her face She had some good memories of this place. Naru knew she had some time to kill before Kakashi arrived, but she still arrived on time. She was hoping against all hope, that he would exactly be on time for their first meeting. No such luck. Naru, no matter old she was mentally, would always remain a kid at heart. She knew that Kakashi was perceptive, but would he really expect anything out of a five year old. She snickered, 'I can finally get my revenge on all the times he made a fool out of me.' She set out to work.

Kakashi was two hours late, but it didn't really bother him. 'Hopefully she already left, and I wont have to deal with her.' He thought. He took out his book, knowing that if Naruto was still waiting for him, he wouldn't get to enjoy his book without the old man finding out. He giggled at the pages of the book, it was a rare moment when he let his guard down. He was so busy giggling that he didn't notice the trip wire at his feet.

'Oh, o' he thought instantly going alert. A net came up to catch him, but he avoided it by jumping away. The second he landed, the floor beneath him caved in. He jumped again and landed next to the hole, where he tripped another wire. This time a huge log came swinging at him. He ducked and rolled away. He looked around alert for more traps. After looking around him for more traps, he looked up where he noticed a bucket falling. Before he knew it he was covered in red paint. Suddenly Kakashi heard laughter. Kakashi's eyes narrowed at the source. Naru came out of the bushes, holding her sides from laughter.

"Yo..ure..fa...ce..pr..i..ce...le...ss" Naru laughed. Even if she didn't get him with the taps, the face he made when he tripped the wires was hilarious and so was him covered in paint. She had finally gotten revenge, for all past suffering he had put her through. She had even gotten some really good pictures to use later as blackmail, life was looking up for her now. She sighed contently, paint would always be her favorite prank medium.

**"****Sometimes your immaturity amazes me, Kit. Though I have to say, the pictures will be useful in the future."** Kurama tried to scold her but failed miserably for he was laughing along with her.

Kakashi didn't know how to react. He was stunned, amused, and infuriated. Stunned because he had fallen for a trap. Said trap had been set by a five year old, and had been pretty elaborate. Slightly amused because, even if he had been its target, he could see the hilarity of the situation. Infuriated because his limited edition book was covered in paint. Infuriated won out, no one touched his book.

"You!" He seethed while glaring dagger at the girl in front of him with his one eye.

Naruto made herself look as innocent as possible, and she succeeded for the most part if she said so herself. Her eyes were basically crying, "I didn't do anything. Look how cute and innocent I look" Kakashi didn't buy into it and continued to glare at her. Naru decided it was time to kick it up a notch, and use her ultimate move.

Kakashi stared at the girl in front of him. Her look was practically screaming innocent. Her head was tilted a little as she stared up at him. Her eyes were wide, sparkling, and pleading at the same time. She also had the slightest of pouts. 'Oh no.' Kakashi thought as realization dawned on him of what was happening a little to late. He was caught in the puppy dog eyes jutsu, a S level jutsu that had been forbidden by the first Hokage, for it could make its target do anything. No one, and he meant no one, could escape its grip. Once you were caught, you had no choice but to admit defeat. Kakashi silently cursed the girl in front of him, curse her for knowing that jutsu. He forgave her with a roll of his one uncovered eye. His hands formed a hand sign, and in a single poof he was clean again. Not a single trace of her prank left again.

'I got to get him to teach me that.' Naru thought as he led her to the three wooden beams, it could be very useful in getting rid of future prank evidence. She was still enjoying her victory over him. Kakashi leaned against one of the wooden beams, and said something very familiar to her.

"How about we start by introducing ourselves." He said while looking at her expectantly.

Naruto knew her answer by heart, "I'm Naruto Uzamaki, or Naru if you prefer. I like ramen and training. I dislike waiting 3 minutes for the ramen to cook, snakes, orange masks, and people who judge others without getting to know them. My hobbies are training and doing pranks. My dream for the future is to become the greatest shinobi ever bring peace to the world."

Kakashi sweet dropped. This girl had some pretty interesting answers. He pretty much expected her to talk about ramen from what he had heard about her, but he hadn't expected the other things. Snakes and orange masks? That was petty random, and he felt a killing intent no five year old should have as she said those words. Lots of kids dreamed of becoming the greatest but to dream of peace? Only some one who had seen death, suffering, and war could really dream of peace. In was incomprehensible for him to hear that from her and with such sincerity too. This girl was surprising him more and more.

He was brought out of his musing when he heard her ask, "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" He gave her his standard answer to such a query. Plus he was still sulking a little from her earlier prank.

"Oh...me? My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you about me likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future...? Well I have lots of hobbies..." Kakashi answered deadpan. Naru was irritated by his answer. Sure she had expected it, but it still pissed her off.

"Well anyway, lets get to training." Normally Kakashi would give the kids the Hokage sent his way a survival test. This way he could test their skills and than ultimately fail them, wiping his hands of useless kids who didn't understand the meaning of being of a shinobi nor teamwork. But this time he couldn't for multiple reasons. One, was he couldn't fall her. The Hokage would have his head if he did. Two was that he couldn't test her on teamwork, if she was the only was he was supposed to be teaching. Finally it would be pretty harsh of him to test her to hard, since she was just a kid. Instead he pulled out some square paper. "I want you to channel some of your chakara onto this paper. It will tell us what kind of chakara nature you have." Kakashi really didn't want to go into the details with the brat, it would be to much work. Instead he just showed her. After his paper crinkled up he explained, "If the paper crumples your chakara leans towards lightning. Based on what kind of chakara you have, you will get different results."

Naruto took the paper from him and channeled her chakara into it. The paper split into four pieces. One piece got wet, one turned to dust, another crinkled and the last caught on fire. Naruto grinned, she knew this would happen. After handling nature chakara after mastering the sage mode as well as molding and sharing her chakara with others, her chakara gained the ability to adapt to any type of chakara. She could easily use any kind of chakara now, without any difficulty. She had learned soon after the war, after she noticed that she was able to use fire and water jutsu without any problem. Naru had already basically mastered wind, fire, and earth. She was already half way decent with water and lightning but she wanted to expand on her skills, which is why she had asked for this training. It was the best way to train without making anyone suspicions of her abilities.

Kakashi meanwhile was having a mental breakdown. How...? What...? How...? He just couldn't wrap his head around what he had just seen. Apparently, Naruto had the ability to use any element she wanted. Jonin were only required to be able to use two and this girl could use five. He understood the wind and the water. Seeing as her father was a master of the wind element and her mother was a master of the water element. Heck, he could even explain the fire, as she had the nine tailed fox sealed within her. But all five elements? At such a young age she had mastered shadow clones, and now she was able to use any element she wished. Who on earth was she? He was interrupted from his line of questioning when he heard her talk.

"Did I do good, Kashi-sensei" She asked innocently, while tilting her head. Inside she was snickering, she had learned how to tell his expressions apart after studying him for years. Currently his seemingly expressionless face basically read dumfounded, seeing it she couldn't help but tease him. Man this felt good. Kakashi had been one of the only mentors that had still been alive after the war ended. He had subtlety guided her for years and helped her whenever she needed it. She had grown up to fast, but now she was able to relax and act like a kid again in front of him. It was a liberating feeling.

Kakashi was startled out of his thoughts, "Ya kid, you did good. You can use any element you want, so your kind of amazing infact. I'll teach you some element jutsu's tomorrow. Today I'm going to test your other skills.

For the next hour, Kakashi tested Naruto on her general shinobi knowledge, chakara control, taijutsu and ninjutsu. He asked her about genjutsu, but quickly learned that she had no talent in that area. After the test were done, he sent her home to relax. Naruto walked home grumbling, 'Why is he such a slave driver this time around.' Kakashi on the other hand went to share her results with the Hokage.

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**ideagetthe:** Thanks for your feedback. If you noticed above I used the puppy eye jutsu above that you suggested, so thanks for the suggestion, she is going to use that on him a lot. Mostly to make this story lighter, I'm going to have Naru prank people a lot. especially Kakashi. Maybe i will add a running gag, but i'm not to good at those, so we shall see. For the physical aspect i can see where your coming from. I'll try to tune down her abilities a little, when shes still young. Thanks for the advice. But I got to say I have a four year old nephew, who can totally head but me in the stomach and he has. So it shouldn't be to hard for Naruto.

**GiuliaZe**: Thank you for all your feedback and compliments. I'm blushing right now. It means a lot to me that you have liked it so far. Naru is going to have multiple teachers, so while she will be kakashi apprentice in a way, she will also be the apprentice of others too. While I'm planning to make Naruto a lot more advanced than her fellow rookies, I'm going to try to keep the bonds she has with them the same, if not stronger. As for a pairing, im honestly not sure. If i do end up pairing her up with someone, it will not be a big part of the story but a minor point. One thing i want to get off right of the bat is that she will not end of with Sasuke. I know many like this pairing but for me their relationship is best described as non related siblings, rivals and friends. So sorry any SasNaru fans in advance. Thanks again for reviewing.

**Futakomori**: Just had a lot to say that's all. xP Once again thank you for your feedback,. It helps me a lot actually to see what parts people enjoy and what parts don't make a lot of sense. So having you tell makes me grow as an author. Anyway Im glad you liked the Hyuga scene, That part was surprisingly easy and fun to write. As for Kakashi, well i think that he cant help but show his pervyness side to Narute its in his nature. xD It wont be long till it comes out. I'm glad you had a lot to say, makes my day reading everything people have to say.


	9. Chapter 9: Encounter with the bullies

Hey guys. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. You will mostly see updates during weekends. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Enjoy.

There's also a little bonus at the bottom. Hope you like it.

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You Arisa Tokudome, BloodyAyame23, Kistunefighter12, Labbagel, LishaBaby, MiYuki Kurama, MooNTiKa, Travis9000, Wings of the Jay, jojo061, loretta537, Akumagirl92, Iyokus, atanime freak, iluvstorys, AncientCelestialDragon, ShatteredDreams666 and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 9

Hiruzen was surrounded by paper work. He swore that the paperwork was out to get him, it was his greatest enemy. It never ended. Luckily in the middle of his battle, Kakashi appeared appeared out of nowhere in front of him. "So how was she?" He asked.

"She can use all five elements." Hiruzen's smoke pipe fell out of his mouth and landed in front of him. 5 elements, that wasn't impossible but it was certainty unheard of.

'Naruto, will you ever stop amazing me.' At this point Hiruzen didn't think anything could surprise him. Outwardly he just nodded.

"I'm guessing you tested her on her other shinobi skill. Where is she at currently and how will you precede to train her?" He asked instead.

"Naruto already seems to have talent in both ninjutsu and taijutsu, while having no talent for genjutsu. When in comes to taijutsu, Naruto while seemingly very uncoordinated, seems to have a advanced fighting style that I have never seen before. It is a highly offensive style that uses fast movement and strength. At times it seemed as if she was using chakara to enhance both of them. It seems she naturally came up with it on her own, which is highly unusual, for when could she have developed it and why. She also has great skill in throwing kunai, but I have noticed that sometimes she overreaches her arms, as if she expects them to be longer. I plan to improve her strength and stamina, as well as work on her coordination which seems really poor right now. I will also help her develop her fighting style even further.

For ninjutsu, you already know that she can use shadow clones. I asked her to demonstrate for me, and she created around 100 of them. She wasn't even tired or winded after creating them. Most likely she can create even more without getting tired. This suggests that her chakara capacity surpasses my own and many high level jonins. I don't know how much of that is due to the Nine-tailed fox. She can henge pretty well, which she demonstrated for me. It was *cough*interesting*cough* demonstrate needless to say. These were the only two jutsu she seemed to know, but its still pretty impressive considering her age." Suddenly Kakashi paused while remembering one more jutsu that Naru could use. He shuddered. "She can also a forbidden S level technique."

This caused Hiruzen eyebrow to rise. Suddenly the way Kakashi had said that caused a light ball to go off in his head. He had a bad feeling he knew which technique, Kakashi was talking about There was only one reason why Kakashi or any grown shinobi would shudder like that. He had to confirm it though. God help them all if Naruto knew that technique, he truly feared for everyone in Konoha. "You mean THAT technique." He placed a strong emphasis on the word that. Kakashi just nodded, 'Oh god, we're all doomed.' Hiruzen despaired, 'She knows the puppy dog eyes jutsu, no one is safe.'

Kakashi couldn't dwell on this topic any longer, it terrified him to much."Anyway Her chakara control is bellow average but that's not surprising considering the amount of chakara she has, I'm actually surprised that its not worse. I plan to diversify the types of jutsus she learns, so eventually she will be well versed in all five elements. I will also teach her different ways to utilize her shadow clones. With her shadow clones she will also be able to learn most faster than normal. I understand that she is still very young for such extensive training, but from what she has shown me so far she can more than handle herself. I will make sure she doesn't over exert herself though.

As I've mentioned before she has absolutely no talent for genjutsu. This is likely due to her poor chakara control. But to make her a well rounded shinobi in the future, I plan to work on this a little. She will never truly be great at it, but she will know enough to escape from one or create very simple ones.

All in all, Naruto has great potential. She will probably soon surpass many in terms of skills and abilities...Well she is also a knucklehead though." Kakashi reported.

Hiruzen nodded, for some reason he didn't expect anything less of Naruto. Hiruzen had a strange feeling that she might even surpass him one day. What surprised him was that Kakashi had so much to say. For a man who didn't speak much, he gave a surprisingly long report. Hiruzen suspected that Kakashi was very interested in Naruto's potential too.

Kakashi continued, "To draw out as much of her potential as we can, I ask that we bring in a few more teachers to train her." Hiruzen nodded, he could see the merit of that but he had some misgivings about it.

"I will allow it, but we must keep her training quite. If the council gets a wind that the Naru is learning shinobi arts and at such a young age at that, there will be a lot of protest. They want to make sure that Naruto does not become powerful. There will be some who agree to train her, but only in the interest of making her an emotionless weapon for the village. I will not allow for that to happen. It's better to keep her training under-wraps for now. Once she is ready and no one can interfere, than we shall reveal her abilities. Do you have an idea on who to bring on in her training?" Hiruzen asked.

Kakashi nodded, "I know two people for now who will greatly improve her skills."

"Good." Hiruzen sighed. "Seeing her skill, It would have been better to take her out of the academy, so she could train more. From what you've told me, the academy wont help her much. But I wont do it. Naruto needs and deserves a childhood, and I wont take that from her. She also needs to interact with other children. If we don't send her to the academy, I fear that she will continue to be a lone. She carries a great burden, and I do not wish for her to collapse under it." Hiruzen reflected. Thoughts of Naruto's burdens was a great wight on his shoulders. He wouldn't wish what she had already experienced on his worst enemy.

"You may go Kakashi." As Kakashi turned and was about to walk leave, Hiruzen had one more thing to say, "Kakashi, train her well." Kakashi simply nodded and in a swirl of leaves was gone. Hiruzen sunk deeper in his chair, one single thought breaking him from his depressing musings. 'Shinobi's and their need for a dramatic exit. At this rate, I'll have to rake my office of all the leaves they leave behind.'

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_Next morning_

Naru was having a good day so far. While the academy lessons were beyond boring, something good had happened this morning. Hinata had worked up the courage to thank her for saving her the other day. Sure she stuttered a lot while doing it, but she still had the courage to walk up to her and thank her. On top of that Naru had convinced Hinata to 'play' later. Naru fully planned on playing with Hinata, but she also had a hidden agenda. Naru planned to sneaky incorporate training in there games. That way Hinata would improve her skills while also gaining confidence without even knowing it. Naruto knew that simple kids games could actually be considered good training if done right. Naru eyes practically gleamed at the things she had planned. But to really make some of her plans work, she needed more players.

Naruto heard the bell ring, and she realized that class was over. Everyone practically ran out of there. Naruto for once wasn't one of them. She was supposed to meet Kakashi in about two hours, so she had some time to kill. As she walked outside, she noticed Sasuke leaning against the wall of the school. She was about to approach him when she noticed Itachi approaching him. Seeing the wide grin on Sasuke's face, Naruto decided to leave the two alone. Naruto sat on the swing that had spent so much time on the last time she was a kid, and reflected on what to do next. As she was thinking she noticed a group of kids getting ready to play a game. She noticed that they were picking teams. Right away, Naruto noticed that Choji was being left out and picked on. Naruto jumped off the swing fully ready to do battle, but someone else got there first. Good old, lazy, Shikamaru came to Choji defense. Naruto couldn't help smiling at the scene before her. Shikamaru and Choji really were the greatest of friends. But unfortunately a trio of one big guys and two smaller guys surrounded them. They started to taunt Choji and Shika.

"What'ch gonna do fatso. You cant do anything. Your just fall over on your fat feet." One of the kids said.

"Well he actually has a brain and can use bigger words. Come on Choji lets go." Shikamaru insulted back, while grabbing Choji in an attempted to walk away. Sadly the other kids wouldn't let them go.

"Ohhh, so the lazy boy has something to say does he. Did you get a nice nappy wappy time you babby? Does baby want his milk and diaper?" The boy who had been insulted was infuriated.

"This is so troublesome. Talk to use when you can spell diaper." Shikamaru retorted and tried once more to get away.

Naruto was pissed. No one, and she meant no one, messed with her friends. Even if they didn't know that they were friends with her yet. She stormed over to the group of kids, "What do you think your doing you jerks. Get away from them or I'll beat you up." She roared. All three of the bullies sneered at her.

"Oh what can a little girl do." The biggest bully said. Bad move, that just made her even madder. She had beaten some of the most powerful shinobi's in the world, these three were nothing to her. She rushed towards the guy who had taunted her and punched him in the guy. He fell back by her surprising strength. She crouched down and swiped one of the smaller guys legs. He fell down on his back. She whipped around on the the last one who was charging her and simply punched him in the face. Like the other two, he fell on the ground too. All three boys glared at her both angry and scared. She had easily beaten all three of them. They knew that they couldn't beat her. So they did what all bullies do when confronted with a stronger foe, they ran.

"We're going to tell on you." They whined while running away. Shikamaru just snorted, while watching their running backs.

He turned to her and nodded his head at her, "Thanks for that."

Choji had already whipped out his trusted chips and offered her some. "Want some chips." Naruto grinned, she had gained just gained back her two friends. Three actually including Hinata. Yes, today had been a very good day for Naruto.

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: Thanks, I think I'll stick with it. Makes a great tension breaker. Thanks again for giving me the idea.

BloodyAyame23: lol glad you think so

loretta537: Thanks for the compliment Im glad you like it so far. I'll definitely take that into account,

Futakomori: Oh Jiraya,will definitely be hit with it eventually. I plan on including it here and there often, as I mentioned above it really is a great tension breaker. Hmmm, I should have thought of that for Kakashi's hobbies oh well. As for the jutsus I'll try to bold them from now, hope it'll help. Thanks for your awesome review again. (look below i left a little present for you, hope you enjoy it)

Travis9000: Thank you.

SugoiAuthorToBe: Thanks, I'm glad you like it so far. There might be a pairing in the future. I'm not a hundred percent sure yet. But If there is one it wont show up for a while.

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Omake (remake of hobbies)

He was brought out of his musing when he heard her ask, "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" He gave her his standard answer to such a query. Plus he was still sulking a little from her earlier prank.

"Oh...me? My name is Kakashi Hatake. I have no desire to tell you about me likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future...? Well I have lots of hobbies..." Kakashi answered deadpan. Naru was irritated by his answer. Sure she had expected it, but it still pissed her off. Suddenly she grinned.

"I've seen you read a lot of times in town. Plus you were carrying a book earlier. Do you like to read? What kind of books do you like?" Naruto asked in her best 'I'm a cute and innocent little girl' voice.

Kakashi almost fell down from there. The only outward sign of his panic was the widening of his one eye. How did she know about his books? The old man was going to kill him. He tried to think of a cover, "Yes I like to read, umm I like to read about...ummm...human interactions. Yes for a shinobi learning about human interactions is very important. It helps us on missions." Kakashi nodded, thinking he had made a solid excuse.

'Human interactions. Really.' Naruto thought. She decided to make him sweat a little bit more.

"Really, its important for missions. Can you read it to me than. I want to become an awesome ninja too." Naruto pretended to plead with her innocent face on.

"Oh, umm." Kakashi looked around for a way to escape. He had dug himself into a trap.

Naruto decided to kick it up a notch. She tilted her head, "I heard one lady say that what you read is porn. Whats porn Kashi-sensei? And why is it important for missions? Can you teach me porn?" She said again in her 'I'm a cute and innocent little girl' voice.

Kakashi was practically crying inside. Yes, it was official he was dead. Completely and utterly dead.

"Look ramen!" He pointed to something behind her,

Naruto whipped around,"Ramen, where!' When she saw that there wasn't anything there she turned back only to find Kakashi long gone. She grinned, even if he had tricked her with Ramen. His panicked face was so worth it.

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	10. Chapter 10: Water Manipulation

Hey guys. I would really appreciate it if you R&amp;R. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I will update when I can but I am a full time collage student, so sometimes it might take me a while. You will mostly see updates during weekends. I know the story progress is slow but I like it slow. Enjoy.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 10

Naruto was doing some basic physical exercises as she waited for Kakashi. There was no point in wasting the day when she could be training, while she waited for him to arrive.

"Yo." Kakashi said while standing over her as she finished another set of curl ups. "While I'll commend you on your hard work. It would be best if you conserve your energy for our actual training." Naruto wasn't to worried about it. After years of being together with Kurama, her body had already adopted the natural ability to energize ten times faster than what was normal. She hadn't lost this ability when she traveled back in time.

"Don't worry Kashi-sensei, I've got plenty of energy left. Bring it." She said as she got up. Suddenly she noticed a really sadistic look in Kakashi eyes.

'I'm an idiot aren't I' Naru thought groaning.

"**I won't argue with you there**." Kurama spoke up.

**"****Shut it, fluffy."**

**"****How dare you call me fluffy, Show some respect brat, I am the most powerful being there-"**

**"****I know your fluffy. You know your fluffy. Just give in to the fact that your fluffy, fluffy."** There conversation was interrupted by an eager voice.

"Oh really? Then lets start training shall we" Naruto swallowed, she had a feeling that today was going to be really long and tiring.

"Today, I want you to learn this jutsu" He passed her a scroll. She fumbled as she caught it and looked at him inquiringly. "We will learn different element jutsu, later. Today I want to teach you an extension of something you already know. Its is called **Shuriken Shadow Clone**. It will allow you to make multiple copies of a shuriken." To demonstrate he threw a single shuriken in the air and made the hand sign for a clone.

"**Shuriken Shadow Clone"** Where there was only one shuriken before, now there were six. Naruto had used something similar to this unconsciously when she took down Gara, but she hadn't realized it. She grinned least now she would actually know how to use it, and it wouldn't be to hard to use. Plus now she could save money on shurikens. "This technique is a very useful one to know, especially if you are dealing with multiple enemies. Because of the amount of chakara, you have you could probably create dozens if not hundreds of shurikens at once." Kakashi explained. "There is one more shadow clone technique, I'll teach you later. Knowing you it would be best to leave that off for a while though." Kakashi shuddered at that point. The destruction she could cause using the **Exploding Shadow Clone**, was to horrifying a thought to even consider. Yes, he would wait awhile before teaching her that, or Konoha would must likely be in a pile of ruble.

He gestured to try and wasn't really surprised that she mastered it on her first try. Where he had produced six, she produced twenty. Shadow clones were her forte after all.

"Since you're not having any real trouble using that jutsu, lets move on shall we." He looked lazy eye at her, "What element do you want to work on first?"

Naruto really wanted to learn something new today so she didn't say wind, fire and earth, instead she wanted to learn about water and lighting. She nodded, making up her mind. "Water." Kakashi raised an eyebrow but said nothing to that, he was sure she was going to say wind based on her fighting style. Instead he led her to the lake next to where they were training. He took out two bowls and scooped up some water in one. He then placed both bowls on the ground in front of her.

"I want you to move water from one of these bowls into the other one." Naruto looked up at him like he was crazy, but decided to try anyway. After five minutes of uselessly trying to get the water to move, she would learn faster with more clones.

"**Shadow Clone**" She summoned around 50 shadow clones to help her as well as 100 bowls. "You guys know what to do, get to work." She commanded.

"Got it boss!" They replied. All of them filled up one bowl from the lake and got to work.

Kakashi was impressed. He hadn't realized that she knew how to use shadow clones effectively. Well it saved him the hassle of trying to explain it to her.

_30 minutes later_

Naruto wasn't having a lot of success with manipulating the water. The only progress she had made was making the water rock a little. She was still trying her hardest when she heard Kakashi call her over. Kakashi was standing with another, shorter man who had his back turned to her. She walked over to them, and Kakashi gave her the closed eye smile of his. "I want to introduce you to someone." he said just as the other man turned to face her.

Naruto couldn't help but be speechless for a moment. In front of her stood a much younger, Itachi Uchiha. Though he still looked a little serious, he had a much gentler and less intense image around him than his older counterpart. Naruto now knew how much the Uchiha massacre had effected the man in front of her. She knew why Itachi had done what he had, and how much he had sacrificed. The man in front of her was no traitor. She couldn't help but smile at him. She noticed that he give her a slight smile in return.

"This is Itachi Uchiha, he will also be training you from now on." Kakashi nodded at Itachi, while quietly whispering to him, "Don't forget that she can use THAT jutsu." Naruto couldn't hear what he said to him but it was the first time she saw fear and panic flicker across Itachi's face before it disappeared and he nodded back. Naruto decided to let it go and introduce herself to the raven haired man.

"Hiya, I'm Naru. So what cool jutsus are you going to teach me." Naru couldn't help but feel exited at the taught of being trained by Itachi. She knew how awesome his moves were. 'Sasuke will be so jealous' Naru couldn't help but think with glee.

Itachi smiled at her enthusiasm. "From what Kakashi-sempai tells me, you need help with genjutsu." Naruto couldn't help but frown at this. She hated genjutsu, she sucked at it. But before she could protest, Itachi continued "I will also be teaching you how to use a sword, if you wish." At that Naru perked up. Using a sword had been one of the few things she hadn't tried yet, and she couldn't help but be exited at the prospect of leaning how to use it. Even Sasuke-teme knew how to fight with a sword. She was so going to learn and beat him to the ground. She nodded at him eagerly.

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For the next two weeks, Naruto split her time between learning genjutsu, learning how to manipulate water, hanging out with her friends, and the academy.

Itachi had quickly understood that the only thing that could make her motivated enough to learn genjutsu was the promise of sword lessons if she did well. Naruto did get irritated at that but quickly let it go and took her genjutsu lessons seriously.

As for the water manipulation, she had made great progress but hadn't completed it yet. So far she could raise the water and move it a little, but she couldn't hold it up for to long. Unlike the time she was learning how to cut the leaves with the wind element, she wasn't rushed as much before and she couldn't bring out as many clones as she wanted. Though she was determined to finish it. What confused her was that Kakashi wasn't really giving her any taijutsu training. Ya, he made her continue doing physical exercises and a little sparing, but nothing to extensive. When she asked him why, all he said was that there was someone better who could teach her that and she would meet him soon. Naru let the topic drop after that, though she did wonder who would teach her.

Naruto also spent some time with Hinata. After two weeks of playing and training Hinata, Hinata skills were growing slowly but surely. Hinata could now use the Byakugan a lot better than she could before. Naruto helped improve it by simple making a game where Hinata would see how far she could see with it and the different unusual things she noticed with it on. She was also faster and had greater stamina, from all the running Naru forced her to do. Hinata was also gaining more confidence in herself. It seemed that all Hinata really needed was for someone to let her speak her mind more, something that Naruto was always encouraging her to do. While Hinata would never be a truly outspoken figure, she was no longer as timid as she once was.

The one thing that Naru hated about the last two weeks was the academy. The only reason she still went was because her friends were there. The teachers were just as she remembered them. They would send her out for the slightest of offenses so she couldn't really learn anything. Whenever there was a test, they would give her a chunin if not jonin version of the test, that no one else received. She also suspected that they erased some part of her answers if she even got it right. Because of all this, Naruto grades still remained dead last. The teachers also tried to degrade and shame her in front of the class constantly. What truly made her happy though is that whenever they did, Shikamaru and Choji were quick in coming to her defense, and tried to cheer her up by distracting her with other topics. Naruto couldn't help the huge grin that came to her face whenever they did this, the last time she was a kid no one came to her defense. Her happy smile seemed to make her teachers even angrier though.

The only time she shined and the teachers really couldn't do anything about it is when it came to the physical aspects. She tried to show her abilities at the same level as Sasuke, but it was hard for her to hold back, since she was used to putting in all her energy. In the end she beat Sasuke by a tad amount, which infuriated him. She used this to goad him into training with her.

"Dobe, how can you beat me?" He demanded. She rolled her eyes at him.

"What, not used to losing to a girl?" She taunted him.

"You cheated didn't you."

"Ya right, like I would need to cheat to beat you."

"...You are going down next time."

"Hey teme, if you really want to beat me, than train with me."

"Why would I train with someone like you, dobe."

"What you're to scared."

"No! Of course not. You're on, dobe." Sasuke whole face had gone red from his anger at this point. He hadn't realized that he had fallen into her trap.

"Meet me on training ground seven, tomorrow before school than we shall see who beats who."

"Fine."

"Fine."

"Fine." Sasuke said while walking away. Teme had to have the last word didn't he, she swore to get the last word next time.  
Soon it became an everyday thing that Sasuke and Naru would meet before school to train and compete. Naru always made sure to match her skills evenly with her, she even made it so that she almost lost to a few times, so that he wouldn't get to discouraged. She never outright lost to him though, because she knew it would be highly unfair to him if she did, and she wouldn't betray his trust like that. In the time they trained together, Sasuke had grown by leaps and bounds. He was much better than he was before they meat.

He was becoming more open too. While he was still prideful and arrogant, he was starting to interact better with other. He no longer outright rejected other. In an extremely rare moment, he even dropped his guard enough to tell her that his father had praised his progress. Most of their conversations though ended with him praising his brother. Sometimes she didn't know if to consider this cute or just really annoying. For he was always saying "My brother..." or "Itachi-nii..." in the end Naru decided just to roll her eyes at him and put up with his brother obsessive tendencies, at least this time around it was positive obsessiveness.

For now she decided not to tell him that his brother was training her, instead she had begged Itachi to train Sasuke and her together in the art of the sword once they were done with her genjutsu training. This way she wouldn't have to hid the truth from Sasuke and the two brother would be able to spend more time together, something that Sasuke had desperately craved. What confused her was that when Itachi agreed, Kakashi started to mutter something about "Falling for it," Naru had long since given in to the fact that she was cursed with weird teachers and gave up on trying to understand their weird ways, especially Kakashi's ways.

Currently she was she was trying to manipulate the the water. She was so close. The water was hovering a millimeter away from the empty bowl. Naruto tiny face was scrunched up with concentration and the tip of her tongue sticking out. 'Almost there. Almost there. Come on. '

"Yata ah!" She had done it. She did it a few more times and it became a lot easier for her. She turned around to see if Kakashi had seen it, only to be enraged at what she saw.

Kakashi was crouching down with his back towards her, trying to read his book sneakily but failing miserably. Suddenly Naruto grinned, this was going to be epic. She manipulated the water to the top of the unsuspecting ninja and released it. Splash!  
Kakashi had been enjoying his book. He tried to stop himself but found that he couldn't do it. The book was calling out to him and who was he to refuse. The Hokage had told him not to show the book to her, he hadn't said that he couldn't read it. He was slightly giggling as he read, congratulating himself on finding a loop hole. The next thing he knew, he was drenched in water along with his book. He whirled around to find the culprit of this heinous crime. Only to come up short, when he found the little *cough* devil *cough* girl grinning up at him. He glared at her, thinking up of different punishments he could give her for ruining his precious book.

"Sorry Kashi-sensei, I missed the bowl" She turned on the puppy dog eye jutsu on him. Curse her! Not again, he wouldn't fall for it again. He refused to give into her.

'Must remain strong, must remain strong. You are a jonin shinobi. You are the copy ninja. You will not fall.' He chanted while trying to look anywhere but at her and her cursed jutsu. It was futile, the second his eye connected with hers, he had lost. His head sunk in despair. He looked at his soaking book, this was the second book she had ruined. He had to make sure to keep them safe from her in the future. He sighed

"Well since you gotten it this far, I guess you pass this stage. Follow me." He led her to the hot springs. Naruto groaned, she had a feeling that she wouldn't like the next step.

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	11. Chapter 11: Revelations

Hi guys. I know I'm a little late this week, but i have finals next week and Ive been studying nonstop. Please R&amp;R it really cheers me up and makes me a better writer. I'm also still loking for a beta-reader. The next update should be around next weak. Enjoy.

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You Adaya Black, Adharsh, AxelScarlet, Higuchi Keitaro, MFProductions, Naru-fan3400, Sayuri36ani, athanright, emina15, kanakoyuki, mahamotti, 100animelover1210, greendragon22, Reshogu, rainbowloves394, tokhito, Katestar98, Mischievously, kagome-is-kool-2, Shigure Toshiro, Midnight Kismesis, Gayle-Feyn, Leandryn and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 11

Kakashi walked to the middle of the hot springs and motioned her to stand in front of him.

"Freeze it." He told her

"Freeze it?" Freeze what?

He sighed at how slow she was "Freeze the hot springs."

"Freeze- are you kidding me! This is a stinking hot springs, how am I supposed to freeze it."

Kakashi just knew that this was going to be a headache. "Water manipulation involves being able to change the state of it. I'm not going to go into a detailed explanation of it, for it will just confuse you. Simply put, when water gets cold it turns into ice right?" When she nodded, he continued, "You're job is to make the water turn to ice. If you can do that it means you've mastered water manipulation." He explained.

Naruto was still confused by this. "But Kashi-sensei, how am I supposed to freeze it?" She complained.

"Getting into to many details with you won't help you." Kakashi stopped to think about how to explain it to her in a way that she could understand. "Ok, all you need to do is imagine the tiny particles of water slowing down until they come to a stop. Understand?" He asked, hoping she would. He didn't know how else to explain it.

"Kinda" She thought. It kinda sounded like what Asuma sensei had told her about wind manipulation, but instead of trying to make the wind as sharp as possible she just had to slow it down. Suddenly she sunk inside the hot water.

"Ah, Och, Och" She had been thinking so hard on how to do it, that she had forgotten to send chakara to her feet to balance on top of the water. The water was boiling hot and now she was soaked. She glared at Kakashi. She had a feeling that he was laughing at her under that mask of his.

"Why do I have to do this in the middle of the hot springs, cant I stand at the edge."

"Oh. I forgot about that. Oh well, this way will also improve your chakara control, which is really poor." Kakashi tried to hide his amusement under a bored tone, but his eye gave him away. He had gotten his revenge. He laughed a evil laugh inside.

Naru glared at him but she knew he was right. She summoned a few dozen clones and got to work.

Kakashi looked at her with a sense of fondness. Even if she was a little slow at times, she really did try her hardest.

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After training for a little while, Kakashi decided to call for a break.

"Want to get something to eat." He asked her but than quickly added, "but no ramen."

"Aw, but Kashi-sensei, I want ramen. There's nothing better than Ramen." Naru pleaded.

"Come on kid, we eat that together practically everyday. Its good to try new things once in a while." Kakashi ruffled her hair. 'Plus my wallet is getting really small, from all the Ramen you eat everyday' he thought.

Naru pouted, "Okay, fine but just for today. Tomorrow I want Ramen." She gave in.

"Got it." Kakashi relented a little, at least today he could have something else. He led her to restaurant that Shikamaru and Choji always used to go to.

He noticed that Naru was walking a little slowly. He sighed, he should have guessed that she would overwork herself. He bit his thumb and summoned his summon ninken Bull. He crouched down and whispered inside the dogs ear. Bull nodded, and walked up to Naruto and barked. While Bull was the largest and most fierce looking of his ninken he didn't have the ability to talk to humans.

"Naru, this is my ninken Bull. Would you like to ride him?" Naru looked up at the dog that was easily twice her size, with something akin to wonder. She turned to Kakashi, "Yes, yes, yes." She climbed on top of Bull and pointed forward.

"Lets go." She yelled.

Kakashi just shook his head in amusement. Where did this kid get all her energy?

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_1 week later_.

"My eternal rival!" Naru looked up from her training to see Gai running at top speed their way. He was wearing his trademark green clothing and smile and as usual there was a cloud of dust following the man. He was going so fast that he couldn't stop fast enough and knocked the unsuspecting Kakashi inside the hot springs.

Naru burst out laughing at her teachers predicament.

"Sorry my rival. I couldn't hold back my youth." Gai apologized embarrassed to a wet Kakashi who was getting out of the water. He was about to glare at the man but gave it up when he realized it wouldn't do him any good.

"So where is this youthful student you want me to pass along my youthful teaching to." Gai said with his usual excitement. Kakashi nodded towards her. Naru walked out of the water towards the two.

"Hey. I'm Gai Maito, nice to meet you." He gave her his signature nice guy pose.

"Hi, Gai-sensei. I'm Naru. Are you going to teach me how you move so quickly or any other cool moves you have." Gai practically jumped with excitement. His eye were burning with fire. What a youthful child.

Kakashi interrupted before the man could practically tackled her with his excitement. He would have to keep an eye on the two to make sure that Gai didn't convert her. He shuddered at the idea of another Gai. Sadly in a few years, Kakashi's fears became real in the form a boy names Lee.

"He's going to be teaching you taijutsu." Kakashi explained

"Yes, my youthful student, come spare with me." Gai told her, getting into a fighting pose, and motioned Naru to come attack him.

"All right!" Naru was exited. While she had been pretty good at taijutsu originally, she couldn't claim to be one of the best. Almost all her moves were self taught. While they were powerful, she knew she had many openings in her technique. And now she had a chance to learn from the very best. A man who wasn't just the top taijutsu artist, but had also raised another top taijutsu artist. Also because her body was still extremely young and weak, she needed to get it in better shape. Gai was the absolute best person to improve her condition.

She attacked him anyway she could with her five year old body. Using all her moves and techniques, and he blocked or avoided them all. She even injected her limbs with chakara to strengthen them, but in the end it was no use. After awhile right when she was getting tired, Gai motioned for her to stop. She did immediately and slumped onto the ground.

"Yosh, you did good young Naru-chan. You have some really youthful moves. With some training, you will become great." He promised. Kakashi sensei sent Naruto home. After she had left he turned to Gai.

"So what did you think Gai" He asked. Personally he was proud of her progress and the skills she had shown.

"You were right Kakashi. Naru is very youthful. Her fighting style is very interesting and one that I have not seen before. It seems to combine a number of different styles into one. I recognized at least four different types of styles included in it that are highly prized here in the leaf. How she come to learn it, I have no idea. Her style of fighting relies highly on speed and strength. It is also highly unpredictable. She changes her attack pattern at the drop of a hat, making it impossible to read. But there are still many openings to it. Her body is also too young to keep up with her moves. Plus at times she seemed uncoordinated. But teaching her the normal academy style of fighting will not help her. The style she used today fits her the best. After she grows older and after a few years of training she should be able to advance her style into one that is practically unstoppable. " He praised. Gai was feeling as if he had won against his rival Kakashi hundred times straight. He had a great feeling about Naru. Kakashi had told him that she was an extremely hard worker and that mattered to him more than anything else.

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Right when Naruto was about to go to sleep, Kurama spoke to her.

**"****...Have you noticed it kit."** Karama asked.

**"****Noticed what?"**

"**Slow as always. It seems your emotions and actions are slowly becoming more childish. Though you have retained all your memories and knowledge. Your mentality is reverting back into a five year old."**  
**"Wait what? Does this mean I'm turning into a kid? Isn't that bad, how am I going to change anything, if I'm just a normal kid?"** Naruto was beginning to panic.

**"****Kit, calm down. I suspect that it started right when we got to this time. But since you were always a child at heart, it hasn't changed you much. Only your emotions and mentality are being affected. Meaning at certain times, you will have the urge to act like a five year old would but even with your childish emotions, you are still Naruto. Your personality will no doubt remain the same. You have already started to change things even with your childish mentality. You are forgetting you are the number one surprising hyperactive knucklehead ninja. You have the ability to change people, be as it may as a child or an idiotic teenager."** Kurama comforted the girl. Well to him it was the truth. No matter what age, dealing with Naruto was like dealing with a force of nature. You couldn't resist her. And Naruto no matter what age, had never normal. She had always been one of a kind.

**"****...Thanks Kurama. I guess there really is no use thinking about it now."** Naruto was happy that Kurama had so much confidence in her. And all this panicking was hurting her brain. She decided that she would face everything head on and would not let anything stop her. With that last thought she succumbed to sleep.

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_2 weeks later_

Naru was walking to school with Sasuke after their training session. Both of them covered in some dirt and bruises. Him more than her of course. As they reached the classroom they both huffed at each other, and went to their separate seats. She had put her head down and was trying to get some sleep, when she noticed two killing intents trained her way. She looked up to notice Sakura and Ino glaring at her. When she made eye contact and then put her head back on the table, not wanting to deal with them right this seconds, they both got infuriated and stomped in front of her.

"So we noticed, you and my Sasuke-kun coming to school together for the past couple of days" Sakura started

"Ya, how dare you come close to him. He's mine." Ino continued. Naruto looked up at them lazily. Kakashi and Shikamaru personalities were really rubbing off on her.

"We train together." She said simply.

"Why would our Sasuke-kun train together with someone like you. You're dead last and a little kid." Ino argued and Sakura nodded her head, completely agreeing.

"Because I know how to fight." Sakura and Ino looked at her unbelieving. 'Wow they really don't pay attention to anything but Sasuke. I've only beaten everyone like ten times in front of them already.'

"Let us come where you train than." Sakura commanded.

"No." Naru said not bothering to raise her head.

"What do you mean no?" Sakura screeched.

"Ya, you only want Sasuke for yourself don't you" Ino accused." Naru sighed. She had been waiting for a chance to talk the them, but not today. She already was dead tired and they were giving her a headache.

"First of all. No I am not after Sasuke. In case you didn't notice I'm five years old. Sasuke is my friend and rival that's all." Naruto explained. The two girl in front of him had a look disbelieve that Naru of all people would be friends and rivals with their all-mighty and perfect Sasuke. They also looked a little embarrassed of accusing her.

Naruto continued, "There are a lot of reasons I wont tell you where we train. Number one, is that unless you really want to train and not try to kiss up to Sasuke than I don't want you to distract us. Number Two, if you two start to annoy Sasuke than I'll lose my training partner. He hates being around fan girls." At that Ino and Sakura glared at her. How dare she call them simple fan girls and how dare she say that Sasuke hated them. Naru noticed this and continued.

"Here's some advice. Maybe if you focused more on becoming shinobi and less time stalking Sasuke, Sasuke will notice you more. He hates weak people, and if you don't want to be a burden to him, you have to get stronger. Plus do it more for yourselves, and less for Sasuke. You two can become really great shinobi if you really tried." Naru turned to Sakura, "You hit really hard. Why don't you improve that ability + with chakara, and no one will be able to take you on. You'll have super strength. Plus your really smart, and I bet you also have really great chakara control. As a shinobi, you can do a lot with that, like becoming a genjutsu master or a medic-nin. It's just my opinion though, do whatever you want." Sakura looked at her stunned.

Next Naru turned to Ino, "I know you're from the Yamanaka clan. You guys can capture people with your mind powers right. That's a really cool ability. You can gather all sorts of info from just about everyone and read minds to. You'd be perfect for espionage and gathering information for the village. You also work in a flower shop, so I bet you know about flowers and plants right? You can use that to make poisons and medicine. You could also become a medic nin if you really wanted to." This time it was Ino's turn to be stunned.

"Honestly if guys wanted it, you could become two really powerful and respected shinobi. But instead of training you spend all your time stalking Sasuke. You guys can be so much more than just Sasuke's fangirls. And if you really to train for yourselves more than for Sasuke than I'll be happy to help. All you need to do is say the word. Just think about it." Naruto buried her head into her arms, to get some rest. She knew that she had been hard on them, but she told them the simple truth. She wanted her friends to become stronger quicker, and now maybe by listening to her they would.

Sakura and Ino walked away from the now sleeping girl in a daze. They didn't know what to think. To think that they would get such advice from someone two years younger than them.

Sakura for her part knew that what the tiny blond girl said was true. Sasuke was so cool and she would never stop liking him. But honestly she had entered this academy to become a great ninja. Sure she was the best in the class for the academics part, but had she done anything else. She didn't remember the last time she truly tried practicing her shinobi skills, all she did now was follow Sasuke around. She didn't want to become a burden to anyone, she wanted to become strong. She wanted to become the great shinobi that the tiny blond said she could become. Sakura resolved right there and then that while she would become Sasuke wife, she would also become a first class shinobi. Sakura decided to take the Naru's advice and learn more about medic-nins and genjutsu. She would even ask the tiny blond what she was taking about with the chakara strength.

Ino on her part also secretly agreed with what Naru said. Ino had always greatly admired her father and his work and that was why she wanted to become a ninja. She had always been proud of her families abilities, but when was the last time she had actually practiced them. Sasuke had been so cool that she wanted to be with him. But is that all she wanted to be, a wife for Sasuke? No, she wanted to become a great shinobi, and if she had anything to say about it she would. The blond believed in her, and Naru barely even knew Ino, so her awesomeness must show right. Ino decided to ask her dad to train her when she got home, and she would even learn more about plants. Espionage and poison sounded really cool to her. She was going to become Mrs. Uchiha and a great shinobi.

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Naru really wanted to sleep, but the sound of a cricket chirping kept her up. She looked up from her arms to find that the cricket was siting in front of her. She sighed, was she ever going to be able to sleep. She got up and gently cupped the tiny bug. She walked to the one person she knew that would know what to do with it.

"Hey Shino." Shino looked up from the bugs that were sitting on his desk. Why was the girl approaching him? Usually the other kids kept away from him. They were to afraid or freaked out by his bugs. Hey looked intently through his sunglasses to see that she was cupping something.

"Here, I found the little guy in front of me. I don't know what to do with him. Your really good with bugs right. You know what to do?" Naru asked the quite boy while handing him the cricket. When he reached up to take it, a bunch of bugs flew out of his sleeves. Naru was so used to it by now that she didn't even startle.

Shino was surprised. He had immediately jerked his arms back as the bugs escaped his sleeves, he had been working on controlling them better. Usually the other kids or even adults would cry out when they saw so many bugs at one place. Yet the tiny girl didn't even react. Why was she so different.

"Aren't you scared." He couldn't help but ask.

Naruto grinned, "Nope, bugs are cool. Its so awesome how they listen to you." Shino had never been as surprised in his life as he was now. "Hey later do you want to show me all the cool stuff you can do with your bugs?"

"...OK" Shino couldn't help but say. He couldn't help but be happy that someone didn't find him weird or someone who liked his bugs.

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idea getthe: Hehehe, its always fun when that happens

Naru-fan3400: Thank you I'm glad you like it. I'll try to update as soon as possible but i have finals next week, so I'm going to be really busy studying this week and next.

Futakomori: Glad you liked it, I loved writing it. Jiriaya won't show up for a while I'm sorry to say. I want Naru to progress some more before they meet. As for the number of books, I imagine he would have a whole room just dedicated to his books. lol.


	12. Chapter 12: Encounter in the forest

Hey guys. I left a tiny present in the end. Enjoy!

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You EarlyBirdNightOwl, GrrrArrgh, Karmidee, OnePlotThickens, Pieface18, nini-mercy, CallisaDawn, GingerEm23, Hinata namakazi, Sonea66, ca186229, fafou59, AgentZhao, Ezmathet, Tacos-rule153, Yuki Tsukiko, Mrose5, random like thisXD, ehanda, Sommermaedchen, skmcrae, natishsohi, Fire Dolphin, UNSC Into Crimson Dark, killerfox116, theskythatshinesbright and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 12

Naru smiled as she rested against some trees beside Shikamaru and Choji. It was break time and all the kids were outside. She laughed as she remembered what had happened earlier that day. Early this morning, Naru had sneaked into the classroom to pull off an epic prank. Her teacher's face when he walked into the classroom was priceless. His mouth had dropped down to the ground and his eyes had popped out. All the desks were upside down and hanging from the ceiling. The classroom was literally backwards. They had been forced to learn sitting down for no matter how hard the chunin teachers tried they couldn't unstick the seats. Naru loved watching them struggle.

That was the highlight of her day, but currently she was exhausted as she laid beside her two friends. She was still tired from training days on end. Her young body was having a really hard time handling it all.

'Man, I'm tired.'

**'I did warn you kit. It was your bright idea to completely exhaust yourself. You baka. I don't know why I put up with you."**

**'Ya, ya. Kurama. You know you love me, you big furball. I'll take the day off today, ok. You happy now.'**

**'Hmph, foolish human.'**

Naru just smiled. Once upon a time, she would never have imagined that they would get so close. She smiled ruefully, life really moved in weird ways. She looked at her two friends lazing and eating beside her. She was truly thankful that she had been sent back in time, she didn't think that she would have such care-free days again. Her eyes stopped on Shikamaru and she remembered something. She reached inside her bag and pulled out two books.

"Hey, Shika here." He simply raised an eyebrow and took them from her. "One is a book filled with battle and stealth tactics. For some reason I thought you would like that. The other is a kind of a problem solving book. Don't worry its way cooler than what we learn at the academy. It's like they give you a shinobi situation and you have to find a way to complete your task. I tried it, many were to hard for me but I found it kind of fun."

"...thanks." Naru could tell he was interested, even if he didn't let it show.

"Hey both of you can use really strong clan techniques right? I bet you two are really good at them." Shikamaru and Choji looked at each other and back at her.

"Not really. My mom keeps on telling my dad to train me. I just find it to be to much work." Shikamaru complained.

"My dad has shown me a few moves, but its so hard. I get tired really easily, so I don't really like training so much. I probably won't become that good at it anyway." Choji said dejectedly. Naruto jumped up.

"No way. I bet you both will become awesome ninja. You guys are so great. I know you can do it." Naru encouraged the two.

Once again Shikamaru and Choji turned to each other, having a silent conversation with each other. They had no idea why the blond believed in them so much, and for some reason they felt that they couldn't let her down.

Choji was happy that someone had acknowledged him and he wanted to prove himself capable of the trust she was putting in him. Shikamaru on the other hand, felt exasperated at her confidence. Why in the world would she believe in them so much? It didn't make sense to him, but Naruto rarely ever made sense to him. Though, he smiled ruefully, even if it was bothersome he couldn't help but be lead around by Naruto enthusiasm. He groaned he knew he was going to regret this later.

Shikamaru and Choji nodded at each other. Both deciding to talk to their respected dads later for more training.

The three settled down again, each content in their own way. Naru had closed her eyes to doze off, but a few minutes later her eyes shot open. She heard load and desperate barking. She knew only one dog that had that bark. She got up to find the source and waved her two friends down, not wanting to disturb them.

She approached the bushes and looked. There caught in a trap was a puppy Akamaru. Naru reached down and untangled the little guy. She gently raised him, to check for any injuries but was satisfied to not see any. The little pup was wagging his tail at her and licked her face. She laughed at his antics.

"What are you doing with Akamaru?" A familiar voice accused her. She turned around to find Kiba glaring at her.

"I umm..." Naru didn't know what to say. She was dejected that her friend was staring at her like that. He snatched the little pup away from her.

"Don't you dare hurt him." He said furiously. Now Naru was pissed off. How dare he accuse her of trying to hurt Akamaru.

"Look here, you dog breath-" She was about continue to tell him off, when someone else interrupted her.

"You should be thanking her instead of accusing her." Shikamaru said lazily.

"Thank her-why would I thank her? I heard some of the grown ups talking about her. Saying she was a monster and all. I bet she was trying to hurt him." Kiba yelled. At first Naru was stupefied. Both hurt and anger were coming back to her.

"Troublesome, she saved him from a trap." At first glance Shikamaru seemed unaffected, but a closer look revealed something Naru would never have suspected. Anger. But why would he feel angry? She didn't understand. She didn't have a chance to think to deeply about it before she saw a white blur come at her. Akamaru had jumped into her arms.

Kiba turned to look at her, before scratching the back of his head. "Che.. I'm sorry, I guess...Thanks for saving him." Naru was to preoccupied with the dog licking her face to respond. When she finally looked up at Kiba, she noticed that he was sincere, so she forgave him. She handed Akamaru back to him.

"Lets pull some pranks together some time." Kiba tried to make up for what he said.

"Sure." Naru grinned at him. Kiba and Akamaru ran away. Naru turned to Shikamaru. "Hey Shika do you play any board games?" She inwardly grimaced here, but knew it had to be done.

"Hmm, I play shogi and go with my dad a lot. Though I never win against him so its troublesome." He responded.

"Can you teach me how to play?" She inwardly groaned. She had absolutely no patience for games like shogi pr go. It involved to much of thinking ahead and formulating different strategies, something that while ideal for Shikamaru really wasn't up her speed.

Now Naru wasn't as dumb as everyone thought, She just hadn't ever had the chance to get a formal education, since the teachers at the academy refused to teach her anything. Thus some basic concepts, that were taught to every little kid, escaped her. If she been given half a chance as a child, most would have realized that Naru was actually incredibly intelligent. What she did know, she had taught herself. She had taught herself to read and write at the age of four, when she had been kicked out of the orphanage. She had learned math when she had to manage her own money. Sometimes she would hide in the vents of the school, to eavesdrop on some of the classes. She couldn't do this often for she was scared that the teachers would notice. She also spent a lot of time observing people as a child, to pick up on anything else. But things like strategies escaped her, since she was used to thinking on the go. She was more of a on the spot thinker. She could think of brilliant ideas and plans but she usually formed them in the heat of battle. But she also knew that learning how to play shogi or go would be good for both her and him.

Though she knew that she would be an easy opponent for him to defeat it would force him to mentally battle with someone else for a change. He would improve his tactician skills this way and force him to use his brilliant brain more often. For her well, she needed more patience and the ability to think ahead. Though she knew that she was a hot head by nature and so far it had served her purpose pretty well. She knew that if she had any hope of leading the village and her friends in the future, she needed to be able to think better on and off the field. She suspected that frequently doing mental battles with the greatest mind of her generation would help her in that area. She also knew that she would never completely lose her rash and hot headed ways but it was still better than nothing.

There was one other benefit to playing the games together. The future Shikamaru counterpart had sometimes forced her, yes the lazy man had forced her, into playing the games with him. He never really stated why he did it but she was able to understand anyway. What he didn't say in exact words is that it made their teamwork even better. The game had given them a chance to better understand each other ways of thinking, though Shikamaru complained that he would never fully understand her. It had come to a point in which hey were better able to anticipate each others moves in battle without even communicating them to each other.

Shikamaru would one day become her chief adviser and strategist when she would day become Hokage. Even though she knew he would fight against it with all his will, Naru wouldn't accept anyone else. he needed him as she needed all her friends to be there for her.

Naru knew that the friends she knew in the future were different from the ones in this time period, but that didn't mean that she cared for them and trusted them any less. No matter what time period they were in that fact would never change.

"...Sure why not. But never thought you would want to play a game like shogi. It just doesn't suit you much." Blasted Shikamaru had to pick up on that fact, she sometimes wished that he was dumb.

"You calling me dumb?" She tried to distract him.

"Not really, I just know that you don't like to sit around and use your brain for long. You're the type that never likes to sit still." He was bluntly honest with her.

"So you are calling me dumb, you baka."

"...Troublesome" He shook his head and sighed. Naru grinned, it was so easy to exasperate him.

She heard the school bell ring and sighed. "There goes my nape time" Suddenly she realized what she had just said and whipped her head around to look at Shikamaru, "Ahh, I'm turning into you. Save me." Shikamaru just snorted at her and walked back to the school. "

"Hey wait for me!" She chased after him.

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Naru was dragging her feet towards the training ground. She had to tell Kakashi sensei that she was taking the day off. Unfortunately for her, some villagers had seen her on the way there. She had been too tired to fend them off today, and they got some hits on her before she could get away. She decided to go through the forest to avoid any more over zealous villagers. She was almost there, when she decided to talk a little break. She leaned against a tree and closed her eyes. She was so exhausted that she didn't notice that there were two other presences in the forest until it was to late. She was suddenly lifted up. When she felt the cold edge of a kunia against her throat, she stilled.

"Look what we have here, a gaki." The man holding the blade against her throat mocked.

"Wonder what a kid is doing her all alone?...Hey wait isn't this the brat who got our commander captured!" A tall shinobi stood in front of her. Naru looked up at his headband and noticed it held the symbol for the cloud village. She silently cursed. These guys must have been with that foreign shinobi that was after Hinata. How had they not been captured already?

"You're right. I would have recognized this bright blond hair anywhere. It's the same brat. Oh I'm going to enjoy making her pay." The guy with the kunia pressed against her throat a little harder drawing some blood. Naru couldn't help but wince a little. How had they recognized her? Where they there at the time of the kidnapping, and if so how in the world had she not sensed them?

Normally these guys wouldn't be a problem for her even with her five year body. She was still able to do all her ninjutsu after all, and she had some new tricks up her sleeves. But the problem was that she had been feeling weak all day. She would have been lucky to create a simple clone. She also couldn't call up Karama's chakara yet for her body was to young to handle it.

But there was absolutely no way that she would allow these imbeciles to kill her. She had to much too accomplish, too much she had to do. She hadn't arrived in the past for nothing after all. She decided to utilize some of the techniques that Gai sensei taught her. She infused her elbow with some chakara and struck it against her captor's stomach. It didn't do much damage since she wasn't able to infuse a lot of chakara into the blow, but it was enough that he was forced to let go. She jumped out of his hold and turned around to kick him where it really hurt with a chakara infused foot. He fell down groaning. Her second captor immediately tried to restrain her but before he could get too close, she crouched down and pulled out two shurikens.

"**Shuriken Shadow Clone" **She yelled after throwing her shurikens. Instantly at least twenty-five shurikens appeared and struck the second captor. He fell down in defeat for he was unable to dodge all of them. On the downside, Naru had no energy to even move anymore. She had used up all her chakara and was now completely defenseless. The first captor had gotten up, his kunia still in his hand, and was coming towards her.

"I'm going to kill you, you brat." He threatened not even five feet away from her.

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Kakashi was late as usual. He was planning on what training to give Naru today. Honestly he felt that she needed a break. He had noticed that recently she had been working even harder than normal and she looked bone weary tired. But he knew she wouldn't simply take a break even if he told her to. Most likely she would train secretly at her apartment. He cursed that he couldn't watch her more closely. To give her something to do other than secretly train, he had grabbed a number scrolls that he wanted her to study.

He had been originally surprised that she knew how to read and write pretty well for a five year old, especially since he didn't remember anyone teaching her. Plus though she was a little slow at times, she seemed to be able to comprehend a lot more than any other kid her age.

He chuckled a little at the face he imagined her making when she opened them. The scrolls mostly contained information such as history or the inner workings of the village. Yup, she was going to hate them. But he would simply have to entice her with the promise of a new jutsu if she read them all. He knew to her this would be seen as cruel, but this was the only way he could really think of to make her willingly rest. Whats more was that she did say that her dream was to become Hokage, and to do that she needed to know more than just jutsu. After these last few weeks, for some reason he had no doubt that she would become Hokage. And one of the greatest ones at that.

At one point he had been tempted to call her a prodigy or a genius, but those thoughts quickly disappeared when he noticed how hard she worked in everything. He had seen her concentrate for hours on end, way past the time he called their training to an end, to get something right. Sometimes even the simplest skills escaped her. It was obvious to him that everything she had learned or accomplished came from hard work and determination. 'No she wasn't a genius' Kakashi thought smiling a little 'but she was one of a kind.'

As he reached the training ground, he noticed that she wasn't there. That was highly unusual for her, she would often already be there excited to start training. Yet as he looked around he couldn't see her. Kakashi immediately felt that something was wrong. Suddenly the faint, but unmistakeable, smell of blood hit him. Kakashi was known for his keen sense of smell and no one could doubt his abilities. Kakashi immediately took of to the direction of the smell. Praying that the little girl was safe.

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Naru couldn't move. All she could do was stand there completely defenseless as the cloud shinobi made his way towards her. She couldn't believe her helplessness. She couldn't help but close her eyes when he was right upon her, his kunai inches away from her.

She kept her eyes completely shut, waiting for the final blow. It never came. She hesitantly opened her eyes, to find Kakashi standing over the dead body of the shinobi. He had come and saved her. A part of her hated the idea of having to be rescued due to her weakness but she was grateful nonetheless. She suddenly saw an emotion in his eyes that she didn't often see. Concern. Why did he look so concerned as he looked over her? He made his way towards her and held both her arms as he crouched down. His eyes roamed to find any serious injuries, and he sighed in relief when he didn't find anything to serious. Naru, even in her exhaustion, couldn't keep herself from feeling surprised. He had been worried about her. At that she lost all the strength she had to stand up. She collapsed against him.

"Hey Kashi-sensi...thanks for saving me..I'm going to sleep now. Kay." She whispered as she succumbed to sleep.

Kakashi gently picked her up. He had felt more intense emotions in the last five minutes than he had in a very long time. When he saw the cloud shinobi standing over her he had felt inexplicably scared. Scared that he would lose another person precious to him. Than he felt infuriated that someone would even attempt to hurt her. In less than two seconds, the foreign shinobi was dead. When he saw that she was safe, he felt such indescribable relief.

He looked around him and for the first time since arriving allowing himself to take in the scene in front of him. His eyes widened a little at the sight of a fallen shinobi, with a dozen or so kunais sticking out of him. He was still breathing but barely, if he wasn't treated quickly he would die of blood lose. Kakashi wanted nothing more than to kill him, for even daring to hurt Naru. But he forced himself to calm down. It would be better to send the man to torture and interrogation for questioning. He couldn't help but feel a little sadistic glee at what Ibiki would do to the man. He summoned his quickest ninken and sent him off to inform the Hokage that he had a prisoner to pick up.

As he noticed the condition the man was in he looked back at the girl in his arms, and couldn't help but feel proud that she had been able to defend herself so well.

His eye hardened as he took in the thin slice on her throat. As he looked closer, he saw some recent bruises on her skin. Some looked a little older than other.. He had no doubt about where some of them had come from. It infuriated him, he felt like killing someone. Kakashi couldn't help but feel a little started at the strength of his emotions. He wasn't used to feeling so much for someone so intensely.

He gently gathered her a little closer and took her to the hospital.

When the doctor saw who he was treating, he immediately backed away. "I'm not treating that monster." Kakashi grabbed the man by his collar.

"I know plenty of way to kill you in the time it takes you to blink. Now, do you want to try that again?" He threatened in a light tone, but the coldness of his voice betrayed his anger. All the doctor could do was nod his head. He timidly checked over the girl.

"Other than the bruises and the thin slice against her neck that should heal nicely, she seems to be extremely exhausted. Her body is worn down and her chakara is severely depleted. After a few days of rest she should be fine. She is also malnourished." He told the scary ninja in front of him, fearing for his life. The man just nodded and scoped up the little girl up again gently.

He was about to take her towards her apartment, but changed his mind and went to his apartment instead. He laid her down in his spare room. He watched her sleep. He should have forced her to take a break a lot sooner. He should have known by Naruto personality that she would try to push past her limit. She tried harder than anyone he had ever met, well maybe with the exception of Gai. She lived alone, so there was no one to stop her. A five year old was not meant to take care of herself, he wanted to strangle the people of the orphanage.

He couldn't interfere with her life due the damn council. The only thing he was allowed to due in the past was watch over her as an ANBU operative. At first he watched her because she was the daughter of his beloved sensei, but the brat had quickly carved out her own place in his heart. Thanks to the Hokage, he was allowed to watch over her as her sensei but even that wasn't enough he could see now. He sighed thinking of all the pranks he would have to withstand if he went through with what he had planned. But as he gazed at her some more, he decided that it was worth it. He got up. It was time to have another talk with the Hokage.

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** :** *Shivers* I dont think I can do the pranking queen/princess justice but ill try. Look below for a little present.

**Futakomori:** Thanks for all the feedback, I'll try to watch out for that in the future. As for Kakashi's wallet. Well the mans only hobby seems to be reading his books so I bet he has some cash to burn. But with Naru around, and her infamous bottomless stomach well I don't see anyone's wallet being safe. Mwhahahaha.

**Naru chan 3400:** Thanks for the encouragment. I hope you do well on your finals too. I wanted to die last week.

**ehanda: **Glad you liked it.

**Fire Dolphin:** I know what you mean. I always felt that Shino didnt get enough attention the poor kid.

**AncientCelestialDragon:** Sadly they proubly wont meet for another two chapters. I have a vague idea of how there first meeting will go and I already find my self laughing.

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**Omake 2** (ChbiNaru vs ChibiSasuke)

_**Warning:**__ No tree was hurt in the process of this Omake. _

_**Warning 2:**__ This is a fight involving a bratty five year old girl and a snotty seven year old boy. Do not expect a respectable and clean fight._

_**Warning 3:**__ Only on days where both of them feel really bratty do I see the fight going this way. Usually I see them being a lot better than this but I once imagined it I had to share. I repeat they usually are much better than the shameless fight below._

"You ready to eat dirt dobe." Sasuke brought his hands up in a fighting stance.

"Bring it Teme," Naru smirked.

"Ready...set...go!" They said together and rushed towards rushed towards each other. Naru tried to tackle hiim and he just stepped out of her way. She ran right into a tree headfirst. She could see tiny ramen bowls swirling around her head. She shook her head and got up only to find Sasuke doubled over laughing at her. She clenched her fist, she was so going to back him pay for that. She once again rushed him and kicked him in the stomach. He fell back and she sat on her stomach. He punched her in the eye but when that failed to make her get off of him, he grabbed her hair and pulled. In revenge she started to punch him in the face repetitively. Eventually he got enough strength to push him off of him. They both got up and faced each other. This time it was Sasuke who rushed in. He tried to punch her but she tripped him. He fell onto his stomach and she sat on his back and rubbed his face into the dirt.

"Give up yet?" Naru taunted.

"You wish dobe." Sasuke tried to struggle but the girl wouldn't budge. Naru simply pressed his face harder.

"How about now?

"Never. I'll get you for this dobe." Naru laughed. After uselessly fighting her for a few minutes, Sasuke finally gave in. She jumped off of him in glee. If anyone would have seen them at the moment they would have been shocked. Sasuke face was swollen with the amount of times she hit him there. On the other hand, Naru had a black eye, a bump on her head, and messed up hair with twigs sticking out.

"Same time tomorrow?" Naru asked. Sasuke nodded. They both headed back to the academy as they tried to think of what todays excuse would be for how they looked.


	13. Chapter 13: Many changes

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You Ben10extreme, autumnkitten25, mya riddle snape, LookOutReader, My Secretmoon, BBHarry, Kidagirl8, Neurele, Poosa-ard, StiCyLove, slayer of the wind, nadishikorei, saya78, Princess of Miracles, Rook115, Darkness and Snow and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 13

Hiruzen was doing what he always did. His dreaded paperwork. He had gotten Kakashi little present and had sent the living foreign shinobi straight to integration after he was patched up. He groaned at the extra paperwork he had to do because of it. A sudden wind blew into his office, and he looked up to find the source. Only to find Kakashi standing there looking tensed, something he rarely saw in the man. He was about to ask why he wasn't with Naruto when the man spoke up.

"I would like to adopt Naruto." He said it simply, leaving no room for argument. Hiruzen looked at the man in front of him a little stunned. He hadn't expected this, but than again it involved Naruto so he shouldn't be to surprised. Hiruzen wanted to grant the wish of the sullen man in front him more than anything else. He knew that Kakashi would take good care of Naruto even if he was young. He already knew that they were good for each other. But some ugly truths stood in the way.

"I would allow it but you and I both know the civilian council will never allow it. Other shinobies had tried to adopt the girl but they have been stopped at every attempt. They want to keep her completely isolated." Hiruzen hated it, but it was true.

"Make her a genin than. That way she would only be answerable to you and the civil council will not be able to interfere in the matter of a shinobi." Hiruzen looked at him in surprise. Making a five year old a genin in non war time was unheard of, in fact he had made sure that no one under the age of ten could be a genin. He had seen enough kids lose their lives as shinobies and face so many hardships. He was about to comment when Kakashi continued. "She has enough skill to outrank any of the current genin and even some of the lower chunin. Her chakara alone could match up to a jonin. She was also able to fend off two enemy shinobi, majorly injuring one, until I arrived on the scene." Hiruzen wondered why exactly he was surprised by that. He should have known she was somehow involved with the foreign shinobi, and that she was apparently able to fight against them. But he still had his misgivings.

"Are you sure Kakashi, I want her to attend the academy still? She is too young to face the harsh lives that shinobi live. You should know that better than anyone else." Kakashi stiffened at that but he was undaunted.

"Promote her and then assign her a C rank mission to watch over the kids undercover then. There are a number of clan kids in the academy this year. So know one could complain. This way she won't see any real battle until she is ready. I will have her complete some D level mission from time to time." Kakashi advised. He was determined to get his way."But know this, nothing will stop be from adopting Naruto. She has been driving herself to the point of exhaustion and is malnourished. She could have easily died today. She's not even out of danger inside the village. The villagers continue to hurt her. She cant live all on her own anymore. She needs a real home. I would never be able to look Minato-sensei in the eye again, if I didn't keep my promise to watch over her. I have kept my distance so far because of the council but now I refuse to."

Hiruzen stared at the young man in front of him. He had no doubt that he would allow nothing to stand in his way. Kakashi could be quite stubborn when he wanted to be. He nodded, "All right. I'll draw up the adoption papers and I'll promote her to genin. The fact that she knows the **Shadow Clone jutsu **should be enough to silence any protest. But for now we will continue to keep her training a secret. Its better for those hard headed fools to underestimate her as much as possible. I'll come visit you and Naru tomorrow with the papers. Oh and Kakashi there will be times I will have you resume your duties as an ANBU captain. Be sure to have someone who can watch and teach her during that time or who knows what she'll do."

Kakashi nodded satisfied but before he could leave he saw that the Hokage started to chuckle a little. He raised an eyebrow inquiringly. "You do realize that she's going to drive you crazy right?" Kakashi decided not to respond for even if he realized that, he wasn't quite ready to acknowledge it. He simply left to his apartment to look after the tiny blond. Hiruzen just laughed harder. He had a feeling that Kakashi would be at his wits end by the end of the week.

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Naruto woke up slowly. She had no idea where she was. She looked around her surroundings but nothing looked familiar.

"**You baka, you were to weak to fight against those imbeciles and you stinkin collapsed. You've been asleep for a whole day. I told you to slow down, but do you listen to me no. Foolish Human.**" Karama scolded her.

"**A whole day seriously. Sorry for worrying you. You big fox."** Naru apologized embarrassed.

**"****Hmph"** came his trademark response.

She looked at the door, when she heard it creak.

"So your finally up, sleepyhead." Kakashi stood in front of carrying some food. He placed it in front of her. Naru was happy at the sight of food. She was starving, but she couldn't help but grimace when she saw what he brought her. Porridge and steamed vegetables. Blah, Yuck! She hated vegetables, where was her ramen? She looked up at the one eyed scarecrow and made a pleading face. He understood what she wanted instantly.

"No, you need something other than ramen. Eat it. Vegetables are good for you." He told her sternly.

She than turned on **puppy dog eye jutsu. **She really, really hated vegetables. Kakashi did what he always did when she pulled this trick on him. 'You wont fall for this again Kakashi. You've face the deadliest of opponents, a look will not bring you down. You will stand strong. You will not fail. You will not give in to her.' It only took a minute for him to break down.

"Fine, I promise I'll take you later for ramen. But you have to eat everything in front of you now. Even the vegetables. Just stop it with the eyes." He cried. Naru grumbled and Kakashi decided to drop one of the bombs right than to distract her.

"Well, being a genin means that you're going to need more nutrients to do missions. If you really don't want to eat them, than I guess I can tell the Hokage that you don't want to be one." He said casually.

"Geni- wait what? I'm a genin?" She started to grinned really wide. In response Kakashi pulled out a leaf shinobi headband from one of his many pockets and laid it in her lap. "Yata ah" She yelled in excitement.

"Sadly you wont be able to wear it often for now." Kakashi informed her. She looked at him in confusion. "You are being assigned a long-term C rank mission to watch over the kids at the academy. That means you have to pretend to still be a student. Currently only the jonins, ANBU, and the Hokage will know that you are a genin." He didn't want her to bummed about this so he continued "you should be happy kid, its unheard of for a new genin's first mission to be a C rank one."

Naru nodded solemnly. While she hated the academy, this meant that she would still be able to watch over and train her friends. Plus now she didn't even have to attempt to do good at the academy." Kakashi seemed to read her mind, "Don't think you can slack off in school either, the hokage and I expect your grades to be good. It would be embarrassing to see a full fledged genin to have to have lower scores than a normal academy student"

'Well, at least I don't have to do any stupid D-rank missions. Like weeding someones grass or catching that stupid cat Tora.' But yet again, Kakashi seemed to read her thoughts.

"I'll be taking on D-rank missions from time to time, so you don't fall behind the other genin as much." He quickly dashed her hopes. Naruto groaned.

"Where am I anyway?" Kakashi straddled a chair.

"You're at my apartment. I found you passed out in the training ground. Apparently you had overworked yourself." He accused. "What did I tell you about working to hard?"

"umm...I.." Naruto couldn't find a good way to get out of this line of questioning. She really had no excuse to give him, instead she just started to stuff her face with food. After a while his gaze softened as he watched her eat.

"Hey Naru." He said softly.

Naru paused mid-bite and looked up at him "Ya?"

"How would you like to live with me? I want to adopt you." Kakashi asked softly. Not knowing how Naru would react,

Naru was stunned. Did he really just say that he wanted to adopt her? Naru couldn't really grasp what she was feeling. The one thing that Naru had always wanted above all else was a family. She remembered watching the other kids running to their smiling parents. She watched them be congratulated when they did something good and she watched them being fussed over when they were hurt. Naru had never had a chance to experience how it felt to be in a real family. She had briefly met her father and mother, and even fought alongside them. It was a moment which she would never forget and hold dear forever. But that was all that it was a moment, they were only there for a little while, before they had to leave her again. Now Kakashi was offering her a chance to have a family. One that stuck. She couldn't stop the overwhelming joy she felt at that.

When they had first been formally introduced in her time-period, Kakashi had been distant with her. He spent most of his time training Sasuke and largely ignored her. But she couldn't deny that he had silently always watched out for her. It just hurt to be ignored once again. She had later learned that he had been highly pressured by the council to focus on Sasuke, but that didn't make it fully alright with her. It was after she had returned with Jiraiya that had begun to change. Not only did he teach her one of her ultimate moves, he began to be much more involved in her life. He began to mentor her, advise her, forced her to take breaks, and was just a constant reassuring presence in her life. Especially during and after the war. He was one of her much needed rocks that supported her and gave her the strength to move forward. She had formed an unbreakable bond with him over the years. Suddenly she realized that at some point in time in her time-line, though she knew so little about him, she had already started to see him as family. Now he was offering to make it official.

Naru could barely hold back her tears, so she turned away and just nodded yes. She knew that by agreeing, she had made things a lot harder for herself. No doubt living with him would make keeping her secretes a lot harder. Plus she wouldn't get a chance to train as much but honestly Naruto could care less about it at the moment. She was finally getting a chance to have a family.

Kakashi gently smiled at the back of the blonds head. He had seen her shocked face, and also the pure happiness and wonder that had light up her face. He couldn't help but feel saddened at all she had gone through in her young life. No one should have had to experience all that she had. 'I promise to look after her for you sensei.' He vowed silently.

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_3 Days later_

"Please, please, please can we train together? I'm dying of boredom. You haven't let me move a muscle for three days. I'm rotting on this bed." Naruto begged Kakashi.

"Sorry, nope. You need to rest." Kakashi said feeling amused by her desperation. Wouldn't kids usually want to avoid training, and yet he was stuck with the one kid who begged for work. Naru wrapped her entire body around Kakashi leg and begged some more.

"I'll promise to be good. I won't pull any pranks for the rest of the week. Please, I'll do anything. I'm all better now. Just let me train. Pleeaaaseeee." Naruto was feeling desperate. Not even her puppy dog eye jutsu worked. He hadn't budged on his stance.

Kakashi snickered silently. No pranks for a week, he didn't think it was physically possible for her to forget about her prank for two days let alone a whole week. She must be desperate. Kakashi looked her over, she did seem to have recovered. It was probably the fox's influence. Kakashi sighed, he could never win against the brat.

"Fine, but Naruto if you don't take it easy." Kakashi got really close to her face than and smiled "I'll tie you up to your bed for a week. Understand?"

Naruto nodded frantically. She backed away from him scared. She could tell he was completely serious. But he had agreed, so that was all that mattered.

"Yata ah." She grabbed his hand and started to drag him out the door." Kakashi let her drag him, amused by her enthusiasm.

Before they could even make it past the front door. A group of two ANBU, five jonins, and a hand full of chunins stood In front of them. Kakashi eyes widened as he looked at them. They were covered in paint. What was a complete give away of who was at fault was that the paint was orange. Kakashi looked down at the girl beside him. She looked sheepishly up at him.

"I kinda did this way before we made the no pranks deal. It isn't my fault that they were caught in my trap." She hastily tried to explain. She had rigged several doors and windows of any official shinobi building she could find. Her trap was simple but highly effective for she designed it in a way that was naked to the human eye. The group of ninja glared at her, one of the jonins stepped up.

"Sir, we need to know of how to remove this, we've tried but nothing seems to work. This paint is causing...complications." Kakashi simply raised an eyebrow at that.

"Well...ummm" The elite jonin was at a loss of how to explain the situation, "the paint seems to glow in the dark." That just caused Kakashi's eyebrow to raise even higher, while Naru couldn't completely hold her laugh in. He looked back at Naru and told her to give it up just with his eye. She sighed and looked back at the angry orange mob.

"You need to mix water, soup, and fish oil then scrub it off using chakara." The group nodded and dispersed, eager to get the paint off.

"Fish oil?" Kakashi asked. Naru rubbed the back of her head sheepishly but couldn't quite hid her smile at the fact of how many days it would take for the shinobi to get rid of the stink.

"Fish oil." Naru answered. Kakashi groaned, what had he done?

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As they approached the training ground, they noticed four others there standing next to Gai and Itachi. It was Asuma, Kurenai, Genma, and Hayate

"Yo Kakashi, my old man told me you adopted a kid." Asuma greeted.  
"We couldn't bereave it so we had to see for ourselves." Genma chuckled.

"If the legendary aloof and solitary Kakashi adopted a kid, the kid must be pretty special." Kurenai added.

"Yes *cough* we wish to see how you of all people*cough* will handle taking care of a kid." Hayate said.

"Yes my eternal rival has adopted such a youthful little girl." Gai announced. Itachi lip turned a little upwards at their antics.

Kakashi sighed. Why was it that all those who could be considered his friends were nosy? He decided to just get this over with. He pulled Naru in front of him. "This is Naruto Uzamaki Hatake, she is now my adopted daughter. Naru these are my friends. They are all jonin, so you have to remember to listen to them." All of the jonin obviously recognized the girl in front of them. They knew that she was the jinchuriki. But none of them held any hostility towards the girl, they knew how powerful the seal was that the forth placed on the girl. They all knew that the girl was no demon, and the fact that Kakashi adopted her spoke volumes about her.

Asuma actually knew Naruto better than most, his father was her jiji after-all. He had frequently watched Naru when she was a small child. She didn't remember him because he had left the village to join the twelve guardians. He had just recently gotten back, and had only seen her from afar or when she was visiting his father. His father was highly protective of her and by default so was he. He was naturally happy that a man he highly trusted and respected had adopted her.

"Hey, I'm Naru. Its nice to meet you all." Naru greeted. At first she was a little started at the Hatake that was added to her name and the fact that Kakashi called her daughter. But she quickly got over her shock. She looked at the four shinobi in front of her and noticed that none were giving her cold looks. In fact their expressions were mostly of amusement. She knew Kurenai and Asuma well alittle. She did spend some time with them in her time-line of course. She was actually pretty exited to see Asuma alive and it was weird seeing Kurenai without her baby. She also knew Genma a little. He was her chunnin proctor for the third exam and she had done one or two missions with him. The last one she knew very little about. Hayate was the proctor from the chunin pre elimination tournament. She had heard that he was killed by Baki. She also knew that he was a master swordsmen.

Kurenai walked up to her. "Hi Naru, I'm Kurenai. This is Asuma, Genma, and Hayate." She introduced while pointing to each of them.

"Hi Aunty Kurenai, Uncle Asuma, Uncle Genma and Uncle Hayate." Naru greeted them all once more with a completely sweet and innocent face but inside she was snickering at their faces. All four of them looked at her flabbergasted.

Kurenai grabbed her and hugged her hard. "Kawai, your so cute. But call me nee-san, Aunty makes me sound so old."

Naru hesitantly hugged her back. She was not used to human contact other than fighting. "Okay Kure-nee" She looked at the other three, "Do you guys also feel old. I'm sorry. Should I call you, Asu-ni, Gen-ni, Haya-ni." All the three could do was nod their heads dumbly, already unable to say no to the adorable kid. They were drowning in too much cuteness. Naru beamed at them, she than turned to Gai and Itachi. "Should I call you guys Gai-ni and Ita-ni too." Now it was Gai's and Itachi's turn to nod. Gai was feeling extremely touched and agreed to the term whole heartily, while Itachi just looked bemused. He was used to being call Ita-ni by his younger brother and he had somehow gained a soft spot for the little girl in front of him.

Kakashi looked on with amusement and exasperation. He could see the affect that Naru was having on them, Pretty soon they would be agreeing with whatever she said. He felt amused that his supposedly elite jonin friends could be manipulated by a tiny five year old girl, though he wasn't one to talk. He already knew that she had him wrapped around her little finger. Seeing his friends faces, he knew he would have warn them about THAT jutsu. But felt that it was already to late. They were all already goners. He could just see it now, she would become such a spoiled brat.

Part of him couldn't help but feel happy at that. She deserved all the spoiling she would receive, she had received none in the past. He had seen her reaction to the hug that Kurenai had given her. No kid should look so surprised and confused at receiving affection. He had seen her hesitance to accept the hug, like she feared that once she accepted the affection it would be ripped away from her. Kakashi resolved to make sure that she would never feel like that again.

He looked at Naru with a tender expression and when he looked up he saw his friends all staring at him grinning. He glared at them to comment, and they just turned away chuckling. Suddenly he saw the face that Naru was making and groaned. He could already see the wheels turning in her brain. 'I'll be good' and 'No pranks for a week' ha what a joke, his suspicions were confirmed with her next words.

"Hey, hey. Your all jonin righ? That means you all know some pretty awesome jutsus right? Please, please, please teach me. I'll be the bestest student ever. Promise." They all looked at her. Part of them wanted to deny her request. She was too young after all. But seeing her pleading face, they couldn't find it in themselves to say no to the adorable kid in front of them. "I want to be as cool as you guys someday." She flattered them and decided to give it one tiny push. "I understand if you don't want to teach me. You all probably have better things to do than hang out with me right. It's ok. I'll try to learn on my own." She turned on her **Puppy dog eye Jutsu **and tried to look as sad as possible for some extra effect.

"Of course not kid, we'll be happy to teach you." Genma gave in first. The others quickly nodded. There was no way they could say no to that face. Itachi had already fallen victim to that jutsu, so he knew exactly what she had just done. It was amusing for him to watch his sempias be manipulated by her.

'Hmm I wonder if I can use the image of her using that jutsu in a genjutsu with the sharingan. It would be a lot more effective for making enemy shinobi crack and spill all their secrets. Much better than torture.'

Kakashi, on the other hand, faced palmed at how quickly they had fallen for it. At this rate practically everyone in Konoha would do her bidding. He shuddered, it was to scary to even thing about. He really needed to find a way to ban that jutsu.

Suddenly Kakashi realized that one good thing that could come out of having more people train her would be a less empty wallet for him. When Itachi and Gai had become her senseis, she quickly juiced them for everything they had over her Ramen bill. Though they had thus learned on how to escape whenever she mentioned food and more specifically Ramen. In response his own financial burden had decreased. Now that he was going to be taking care of her full time, he needed all the help he could get. It would be best to let them find out on their own of the perils of treating Naru. Kakashi kackled with glee on the inside.

"Hey kid, I heard that your already a genin. You're only five right? That's pretty impressive." Asuma congratulating her. Naruto beamed up at him and nodded.

"Yes, you should be proud. *cough* Only one other in the history of this village was someone promoted to genin at that age." Hayate added.

"Really!" Naruto couldn't help but be proud of that fact. But it was nothing for the future Hokage. She purposefully pushed away the fact that she was from the future. 'Beat that Sasuke.' The other all nodded at her. She couldn't help but be curious though. "Who was the other one?" She asked.

All eyes turned to Kakashi at that moment.

"My eternal rival of course, he made genin at five. Just like you." Gai proclaimed, proud of the fact that his rival was so great. Kakashi just rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment.

Naruto turned to "Wow. I didn't realize you were so cool. Hey that must mean you knew some pretty cool jutsu at my age. Why haven't you taught them to me yet? All we have been doing is element manipulation, I want to learn more. Teach me, teach me, teach me. Please."

"Naru, didn't you promise to take it easy. You do remember what I told you what would happen if you didn't right? " Kakashi asked in a deceptively lazy voice.

"Yup I remember. I'll take it easy" She said hurriedly. He stared at her in a way that meant that he clearly did not believe her. "Really!"

Only two minutes had passed when Naruto started to fidget. The jonin were teasing Kakashi about him becoming a parent, when she finally couldn't take it anymore.

"Can we pleassssse train now?"

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It was later that day when Ibiki showed up at Kakashi's apartment. Naru opened the door, and grinned up at the giant of a man at the door.

"Hiya" She greeted. Ibiki was surprised at the grin that the girl was giving him. Those who saw him were usually scared out of their wits, and it wasn't just kids. He had sometimes been part of Kakashi ANBU squad and looked after the kid, but she didn't know that. So to see this girl grinning at him, not scared one bit by his height and scars, was something new. He couldn't help but smile back at her. 'Interesting kid.' He thought.

Kakashi appeared behind her. "Hey Naru, why don't you go to your room and read those scrolls now?"

"But they're boring, Come on cant you just give me some jutsu scrolls?" Naru begged.

"Come one kid, I'll teach you a jutsu after you've read and memorized those scrolls." When all she did was cross her arms, he added "Or do you want more scrolls to remember, if you wait here I can get you some more?"

At that she ran to her room, "The jutsu you teach me better be good."

Ibiki watched the scene in amusement, who would have thought that the most private shinobi of Konaha would be part of such a domestic scene. Kakashi led Ibiki to his sound-proof office.

"So what did you find out." Kakashi asked as the two sat down.

"The wuss sang like a bird," Ibiki smirked. When Ibiki had found out that the shinobi had attacked a kid, well lets just say it took him no time at all to get the information he wanted and than some. "He and his partner were here with the small group that had come with the cloud delegation for the treaty signing. They were present for the kidnapping, and saw your kid Naruto Uzamaki attack the leader. Once they noticed the crowd they scrammed, and have been hiding in the forest ever since. Apparently the Raikage had nothing to do with this attempt but something that the three took on to themselves because of greed. They would have been disgraced if they returned to their village, since they failed their self imposed mission. So they decided to wait out and see if they could get another chance at kidnapping the Hyuga heir. Not the smartest blocks in the woods, those two.

When they were traveling in the forest, they noticed Naruto leaning against a tree. At first they thought that she was any old brat, so they decided to use her as hostage encase someone from the village spotted them. Once they recognized her as the one who attacked their leader they decided to get their revenge..." Ibiki trailed off here noticing the murderous intent rolling off Kakashi. He continued with his story quickly "Heh, it seems that the kid was pretty resourceful. She elbowed her captor in the gut with chakara infused strength and than kicked him where a man should never be kicked."

Kakashi smirked with sadistic pleasure at that. 'Good job, Naru.'

"She than apparently threw a few dozen shurikens at the second shinobi. You arrived when the first shinobi got up and was about to attack her." Ibiki reported. Truthfully he was pretty impressed by the brat. She had been able to hold her own against two enemy shinobi until help arrived, that showed some real guts from a five year old. 'Maybe I can recruit her for my division in a few years. We need some fresh blood.' he glanced at Kakashi and noticed his protective nature 'Never-mind, he wouldn't hesitate to kill me if I tried, Anko is good enough.'

Kakashi nodded, now fully satisfied knowing exactly what had accord. He was also pretty proud of hearing what Naru had done. He had no doubt that if she had been at her full strength that she displayed during training, she would have held out a lot longer than she had. He now felt no misgivings about insisting that she be promoted the genin. She truly deserved it.

Kakashi turned to Ibiki, or the ANBU operative codenamed Bear. "The Hokage is sending me on an ANBU mission in a week. You are to be part of the team along with weasel and Tenzo."

Ibiki nodded as he left, "Yes, captain."

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TsubasaTenshi-sama: Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. For this story, I'm planning on thier relationship more a father/daughter one. I do have an idea of who I'm going to pair her up with but it won't show up for a while.

GiuliaZe: Go papa-kashi! lol. I hope you were satisfied with the reaction above. I tried to Naru character down as precisely as I could. Hopefully I captured it.

LookOutReader: Thanks for the advice. As you can see, if giving her a lot more teachers to make her more rounded. But when it comes to genjutsu and medic jutsu, she'll probably only learn the very basic, since I want her to still have some weakness. It would become overkill if she suddenly became great in everything, so I'm planning on making her keep her low chakara control. Yup poor Shino is always left out. Sad to say that while I'll try to make more scenes with him, hes just so hard to write about since we know so little about him, so their wont be to many. As for the adobation thing goes, honestly it just kinda happened. I originally didn't plan to include it, but to me it just made sense. To me it's just not normal for a five year old to be left alone. Since Kakashi is training her everyday, it makes sense that he would take some action towards that fact. AND YES I STILL NEED A BETA READER! THANKS FOR OFFERING! I'll PM you the next chapter as soon as I'm done with it. Again many thanks.

april7000222: If only! I would love more reviews. Im glad your liking my story.


	14. Chapter 14: Three new(old) friends

Hey guys. Im really sorry about the late update. Ive been really sick for the past week. Curse my poor immune system. Hopefully I'll get the next chapter up sooner to make it up to you guys. Also I would like to give out a big thanks to LookOutReader for beta-reading this chapter.

I recently realized that i forgot to thank some people who have Favorited this story so I will take this time to thank them and the people who have just recently fav/fol this story: aj14, twilight663, ElementalDragonKnight98, Kenzie605, demon-angel-lover, thedarkshark24, The Never Yielding Queen, bloodyangel1457, Yorutsuki-Lunia, katsuchan21, CaptainofherSoul, Interested Fan, MiYuki Kurama, seiraYUY, Commander Yuki, Downri9htDirty, ShishiouBlade, Zelga Lim Li, blackkat818, emina15, kanakoyuki, pinkiceangelbaby, xXxDeMoNaNgEl27xXx, cocophyz12, ayeshabi, randomworld24, Jasmine09, LITTLE RED FOXX, Sanz0girl, akuko, Ouma, Tsukiyoukai, Unlimited Blade Works Ilya, ilovepie123, jacalman, Ezmathet, Clarindas, ofsaltandhalefire, yuki420, bonitabelle, TsubasaTenshi-sama, diamondstarlight713, eirashields, rikkatsuki, Bunnibutch, napsterman23, fco ala, coolcatuui, 09gemgg, ArtemisDove2, Basketball is my life 7, Fireshadow Prime08, Gemini-Spark, JellOtaku, Kuro no Saisei, animikiikaa, ferpet, flippy3131, mafia king, nights angels 96, Akrisakara, Mwhahahaha18, anex4725, Scales of nothing, ShinRainhawk, InfectedElite, Khrystaline, RemiliaPercival, Cissnei69, queenyuri, Lorna Laso, dashundra89, siesta sora, Denpa-chu, Spirit1328, CelesteUzumaki2718, EmpressLupin, Felinae, Scotland-Lassie, VariegatedMosaic, Kawaii-ramen-bowl, Nikita Psyche, Sakuraslayer, Simon G, SkyFire86, TheJokingMoon, buterflypuss, masterpencro, NoCoffeeNoLife, SurprisinglyBitter, caseylu, izzyrawr, wind dancer1981, Aline-chan, foxchick1, child-of-paradox-and-chaos, Littlest1 and also a big thanks to the people who previously followed/faved this story.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 14

Naru was having a hard time waking up from her comfortable bed. It was her fourth day living at Kakashi's apartment and the first day she wasn't forced onto bed rest. Yet, she wanted to continue dreaming about ramen! Lots and lots of ramen. Miso Ramen, Chicken Ramen, Beef Ramen, Shrimp Ramen, oh god she was in Ramen Heaven and she never wanted to leave. Her dream was so realistic she thought she could actually smell it. Wait! She really could smell it. She rose from her bed with her eyes closed and let the smell guide her. When she opened her eyes, she was sitting on a dining room chair with a bowl of ramen in front of her. It wasn't the instant kind, nor was it Ichiraku's Ramen. No it was homemade ramen. She looked at it as if it was the most priceless treasure in the world. She had never had homemade ramen before. She looked up with sparkling and worshiping eyes to see Kakashi looking at her in amusement. From that moment on she knew that this would be the start of a beautiful relationship.  
"Yo" He eye smiled at her.  
"You are awesome! Itadakimasu!" Naru began to dig into her delicious ramen. Kakashi chuckled.  
"I'll make you a deal Naru." She looked up at him with noodles dangling from her mouth. "Once a week, I'll make you ramen. As much as you want and whatever kind you want." Naru's eyes practically glowed and her mouth salivated at that. "But" He held up one finger here. "You will have to eat whatever else I put in front of you for the rest of the week. And yes, Naru, this includes Vegetables." He finished before she could interrupt him. Naru looked down at her bowl and thought hard about it with her face scrunched up. Six days of yucky vegetables, in return for one day of all she could eat ramen. Kakashi decided to push another button in order to help her make up her mind.  
"You'll grow taller." He said lazily. Naru's eyes shot up to meet his eyes. She hated being short. She looked down at her bowl, it really was delicious. She nodded; she had made up her mind.  
"You got a deal old man." Kakashi sweat dropped.  
'Old man?' How in the world was he an old man? He was eighteen! If you didn't look at his shinobi record, many would still think of him as a kid. In fact, that was an issue the civilian council had raised up when it was announced that he was adopting her, but it was shot down by the shinobi side.  
Naru got up after finishing her third bowl. "I'm heading to school now, see ya."  
"Already?" Now Kakashi knew that he had a tendency to be late, but she still had an hour before school started.  
"Yup, got to meet up with a friend first. If I'm late, he'll become moodier than normal and I'll just have to hear him complain the entire time. See ya." Naru ran out the door.  
Kakashi sighed. How could one girl have so much energy? As he looked at her vacated spot he saw the empty bowls. It would never cease to amaze him, how many bowls she could eat. Where did it all go? Kakashi had a feeling that he was going to regret making that deal with her. He had foolishly said as many as she could eat. He sighed; there went the money he was going to spend on purchasing new limited edition books.  
Kakashi looked around his apartment. For him alone it was enough but with Naru living with him it just seemed too small. Naru needed more space to run around and he didn't think his apartment would hold up against the force called Naruto. Maybe it was time for a change of scenery.  
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"Yo." Hiruzen whipped around to see Kakashi squatting at his window.  
"Kakashi, one of these days you will have to learn to use a door." The man just shrugged at him.  
As Kakashi tried to go inside the room, he found his feet stuck to the window still. 'Naru!' He mentally screamed, knowing that this was her work. Who else had the nerve to put glue on the Hokage's window sill? He would have to have some words with her when they got home. He found that no matter how much he struggled to get his feet unstuck it was of no use. He sighed and just slipped out of his slippers.  
Hiruzen chuckled at the scarecrow's predicament. He also knew that it was Naru's work and he couldn't help but feel both exasperated and proud. He was exasperated because she had pulled another prank, and in his office no less. He was proud because he couldn't help but enjoy the fact that after years of telling three certain stubborn men to stop using his window as an entrance, it had finally come back to haunt at least one of them. Maybe now the man would learn his lesson.  
"What can I do for you Kakashi?" He asked trying to hide his amusement but failed.  
"I wanted to inform you that I might be moving to the Hatake estate, now that Naru's living with me." Kakashi reported. Hiruzen sank back into his chair. He had a feeling this might happen and he had already come up with a plan.  
"As you know the Hatake estate and the Namikaze-Uzamaki estate are right next to each other. I propose joining the two together." The Hokage suggested. Kakashi eyes widened. He hadn't visited his sensei's house since his death and had forgotten about it. He wondered why the Hokage had suggested joining the two. Both estates were nowhere near the size of the Uchiha estate or the Hyuga estate but they were each fairly large. Why combine them for just two people?  
Hiruzen could see Kakashi confusion. "The house does rightfully belong to her and she should have it. I wanted to wait till she was older, but now seems like as good a time as any. Also she is the heir to the two clans; she may want to restore them one day. And you know as well as I do, that there once was a Hatake clan as well. It was a small one but it was well respected. While you try to forget the fact that you hold a place on the council and try to avoid your duties others haven't." Kakashi couldn't help but cringe at that. He liked to forget the fact that he was a clan head; it was usually really easy to do since he was the only one left. Most of the Hatake had been killed in previous wars, and eventually the only ones left were his father and himself, and now it was just him.  
"Now that you have formally adopted Naru she is now the heir of the Hatake clan as well. While she may be the only one left of the Namikaze clan and you two the only ones left of the Hatake clan, I have heard rumors of other Uzamakis out there. There is a chance that Naru will bring them together one day and become the rightful head of the clan. I know it's a long shot but the combined estates will come in handy, if this comes to pass." Kakashi shuddered at the thought of living with more people. Naru was more than enough. What scared him the most was that it was entirely possible for the blond to do what Hiruzen described.  
"The estate contains a library and two training ground. The library is filled with jutsus that Minato and Kushina left behind for Naru. Currently the room is locked with a blood seal, so only Naru can access it as well as the people she allows. I suggest you place additional seals on the room. Naru is still too young to have access to some of the jutsu in there. If not done properly and under supervision some of the jutsus might seriously hurt her. The estate also contains other key rooms such as a vault, armory, and such. I trust you to add seals to those rooms as well." Kakashi groaned at the thought of trying to keep Naru away from something, it was nearly impossible. "The training grounds that are connected to the Hatake training grounds and are pretty secluded. It will be easy to train her in secret there. Plus there is large training ground underground as well for complete privacy." Kakashi was thankful for that little feature. It would be a lot easier now to keep her training away from prying eyes, which could have been a problem in the public training grounds. Kakashi sighed. While he still believed that the combined estates would be too large for two people, he saw the wisdom of accepting. He reluctantly nodded his acceptance to the proposal. Hiruzen grinned as he blew on his pipe. That had been easier than he thought it was going to be. He dropped the last bomb now that Kakashi had agreed and couldn't back out. "Good. You can move in, in about two weeks after some renovations have been done."  
"Renovation?" Kakashi sweat dropped.  
"Oh nothing major just a few adjustments." Hiruzen lied through his teeth. He was planning on making major renovations. His pseudo granddaughter had lived in a heap all her life, she deserved the best and he was more than happy to give it to her.  
Kakashi suspected that the old man was lying to him but he had no proof and he couldn't just accuse the leader of the village without any evidence. So he backed down and left after he was dismissed. As he left the office, he heard some snickering from the ANBU guards. He looked down and groaned. He had forgotten that he wasn't wearing any slippers.  
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In the academy  
Naru looked down at the book she was reading while the teacher lectured on and on. She already knew everything he was teaching so she found no point in listening to him. She was trying to learn about Fuinjutsu, the art of sealing. She had always wanted to learn it because of three important reasons. First reason was she found it extremely cool and she could totally use it on missions. Second reason was it was a part of her heritage with being an Uzamaki and related to the fourth Hokage. She had grown up with no connections to her ancestors and her heritage, so having the opportunity to actually connect with a part of it was extremely appealing to her. Plus, Ero-sennin was also a master at sealing and to her that was an added incentive.  
Third reason was Gaara. She wanted to be able to strengthen his seal. Eventually she also wanted him to bond with his bijuu like she had but till then she didn't want Shukaku to influence Gaara anymore. He deserved a better life and she wanted a chance to give it to him. She couldn't ask Ero-sennin to strengthen the seal without raising suspicion, so she had to do it herself. Luckily she already had something to base his seal off of.  
She had meant to learn Fuinjutsu after the war but she had never had the chance. The only problem with learning it now was that she had to keep it a secret. She couldn't do it out in the open for most would object to her knowing anything about seals, primarily because of the one she had on her stomach. She was currently hiding the book on Fuinjutsu behind a textbook. The teacher only looked her way to glare at her or to mock her, so it wasn't too difficult to keep it hidden. Most of the class didn't even glance towards the section she was sitting in. Shikamaru was sleeping beside her as was Kiba and Akamaru. Choji was snacking on some chips behind his book. Ino was doing her hair and was only half listing to the teacher. Shino was communicating with his bugs as he pretended to pay attention. Sasuke was paying attention but looked extremely bored. The only two who had their full attention on the teacher was Sakura and Hinata.  
Naru was having a hard time understanding the book. She was more of a hands on type of learner and this book used too many conceptual details for her to really learn anything. In her frustration she put the book inside and decided to just wing it. She grabbed a piece of paper and started to practice some very basic seals. It didn't take long for her to get the hang of it. In fact once she tried it half a dozen times, she unconsciously started to add her own touches to the seals. Sasuke, who was sitting next to her, took notice.  
"What are you doing dobe?" He whispered.  
"Shut it teme, I'm trying to learn how to make seals." Sasuke snorted.  
"Why would you do that? What good are seals anyway other than to make things go boom?"  
"Baka. Seals are awesome. You can practically do anything with them. For example if you're going on a mission would you rather carry a backpack full of stuff or just one light scroll that could hold all your things. They can do a lot of other things too." Naru lectured him. Sasuke snorted again but nodded because he was starting to understand.  
Naru practiced until a few minutes before class ended, which was when she decided to put a plan of hers into place. So far all her friends had been split up into their own groups or just hung out by themselves. Naru wanted to change that and bring them all together. She passed notes to each of her friends to meet her in the area that she usually trained with Kakashi in, in two hours. Most of them just nodded while other agreed in their own way. Meaning Sasuke huffed, Shikamaru muttered his favorite word and Kiba made a che sound.  
As she walked out of the academy with her friends, she was surprised at what she saw. Kakashi was waiting for her. This completely shocked her for while she had always seen other parents pick up their children; she had never experienced it personally before.  
As he approached them, Kiba asked, "Who's the one eyed mask guy? I've never seen him before." Naru didn't know how to address him anymore.  
"He is Kakashi Hatake, a jonin. He adopted me three days ago." Naru introduced him. The rest of her friends were shocked by the news. The fact that she was an orphan had slipped most of their minds. What was more was that Naru had missed four days of school. When they asked her why, she had told them that she hadn't been feeling well. Now they wondered if she had been telling them the whole truth.  
"Yo." The man now identified as Kakashi greeted.  
"What are you doing here?" Naru asked bluntly.  
"What can't I act like a normal parent and pick my daughter up from school." He asked in a mock hurt voice. For some reason he had no trouble calling her his daughter. It had a feeling of rightness.  
"But you're on time. Were we attacked or something? Something big must have happened for you to be on time for once." Naru questioned. Kakashi grabbed his heart with mock offense.  
"Naru you wound me. Why must my cute little daughter be so mean? I'm not that bad. Am I?"  
That comment made Naru turn red with frustration and embarrassment. She suddenly remembered a time when he used to call her, Sasuke, and Sakura his three cute genin, and that calmed her down a little but not by much. Naru glared at him before she gave into her curiosity.  
"Really though. Why are you here, did something happen?"  
Kakashi gave his signature eye smile, "Just wanted to ask if you wanted to grab something to eat?" Naru brightened up, but before she could say anything and burn a hole through his pocket he continued, "No ramen. You already had some this morning." Naru pouted at that. She waved goodbye to her friends, who had all been highly entertained by the interaction between the two. As the two began to leave they could hear Naru arguing before Kakashi said, "Care to tell me why there was glue on the Hokage's window stile. Especially, after you promised to not pull anymore pranks for the rest of the week." Just as the two turned the corner, they could faintly hear Naru start panicking.  
"Well you see...But I did that like a week ago, so it doesn't count. Right?"  
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Naru was heading to the agreed meeting spot after she had finished having a meal at the dango shop with Kakashi. This would be the first time all her friends would meet together in one place outside of school. She wanted to make it memorable and she had an idea on how to do so. She was there about an hour and twenty minutes before the agreed time. With plenty of time to set up Naru summoned thirty shadow clones and sent them to work, while she went to work on her own special job elsewhere.

In the corner of Konoha sat a small store. At first glance most people wouldn't even take notice of it. But any skilled shinobi who knew anything would recognize it as the best weapons shop in Konoha. The store was filled with many different types of high quality weapons and armors. The shop was run by a large middle aged man and his young daughter. Currently an eight years old girl with black hair tied up in two small buns was manning the counter while her father worked in the workshop that was in the back of the shop.  
Tenten looked up from the sword she was polishing when the doorbells chimed. "Welco-" Tenten looked around but couldn't spot anyone in the store.  
"Hiya." Tenten heard an overly excited voice. She looked over the counter to find a tiny blond girl smiling up at her. Tenten smiled back at her.  
"Are you lost?" Tenten asked the girl because she saw no reason for such a small girl to be in a weapon shop unless she was with her parents. The girl shook her head.  
"Nope, can you show me where your shurikens are located?" Tenten didn't know what to do. She had never had to deal with something like this before. Here was a tiny girl asking to see sharp weapons, Tenten was about to deny her when the girl spoke up again. "You see I only know how to throw one shuriken at a time. My...dad was going to show me how to throw more. But he is busy with some mission and can't teach me." Here Naru made a teary eyed face. Already Tenten was melting. "I wanted to surprise him by practicing a little on my own. Hey nee-san I bet your already really good at it, can you teach me? Please." Tenten couldn't take it anymore. The girl was just too cute.  
"Sure kid, let's go out back. I can teach you. I'm Tenten by the way, who are you?" Tenten led Naru to a tiny training yard.  
"I'm Naru, nice to meet you Tenten." Naru gave Tenten a big grin. Tenten took out a dozen shurikens, placed ten on the ground while she kept two in between her fingers.  
"Watch Naru, this is how you want to hold it. Remember not to tighten your fist too much are you're going to hurt yourself. Once you are holding it right. Eye your target. Bring your arm back and then swing your arm forward and let your shurikens go…just like that." Tenten demonstrated, her two shurikens flying and hitting her target perfectly. "All you need is practice to improve."  
"Wow Tenten, you're awesome. I think I saw you at the ninja academy. Are you going to be a ninja? Are you? Are you? Are you?"  
Tenten sweat dropped at the kid's excitement. "Ya, I want to become a great kunoichi one day, just like the legendary sennin Tsunade-sama." Tenten's smile suddenly dropped, which didn't slip past Naru's notice.  
"Tenten why are you sad?"  
"Oh it's just that I wanted to become just like Tsunade-sama and become a medic-nin just like her. But my chakra control isn't that great and to be a medic-nin you need to have amazing chakra control." Tenten was depressed. All her life she wanted to be just like Tsunade-sama and it was a huge blow for her that she couldn't follow in her idols footsteps.  
"Well that's dumb." Naru said crossing her arms over her chest while getting a stubborn look on her face. Tenten looked at her startled. "Even if you don't have great chakra control, you don't have to give up on becoming a medical-nin, if you really don't want to. If you work really hard at it, one day I'm sure you can become one. But even if you don't become a medical-nin that doesn't mean that you can't become a great Konoichi. I mean look at how great you are at using weapons. I bet you can beat the pants off anyone when it comes to weapons." Naru nodded. Tenten looked at the girl in front of her in amazement. Tenten grinned thinking that the Naru had a point. She couldn't just quit her dream. While she may never be like Tsunade-sama, she could still become a great kunoichi. Suddenly the tiny blond beside her perked up, "Hey, hey, hey. My friends are all going to meet later do you want to come with us? Oh and they're all older than me, so you won't feel left out. Come on, please?" Tenten found herself unable to say no and ended up agreeing.  
"Great meet you there in about an hour." Naru yelled and ran off. Tenten waved back. As she was heading back into the store she suddenly realized that Naru hadn't thrown a single kunai. She shook her head and decided not to think about it.  
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In a tiny training area behind the academy a single child was training. He was once again looked down on by the other kids at the academy today because he still couldn't do a single jutsu. But he refused to give up on his dream of becoming a shinobi. He trained nonstop in order to achieve his dream. He was currently in the middle of his strenuous training regime that he had set up for himself. He was sparring with a wooden post, and a little blood was seeping out of the bandages covering his fists. He repeatedly punched and kicked the post as quickly as he could. As he finally came to stop, he took a step and took in a deep breath. He suddenly felt a fist flying towards his back and by pure instincts he blocked it and swept at his attackers' legs. He heard a thud and then some chuckling. As he looked at his attacker for the first time, he stepped back in shock. There on the ground was a little girl with blond hair, laughing crazily.  
"I am sorry young one. I did not see you there." Lee quickly tried to apologize for hurting her. It did not sit right with him to hurt such a young one. He offered his arm to her and helped her up. To his amazement, instead of showing pain or being mad she was smiling up at him.  
"That was so cool. I wanted to see if you were still quick and you are." Lee was confused. This young girl was talking like she knew him. It seemed as if she read his confusion and said, "Oh sorry about that. I heard from some kids that you were really good at taijutsu and that you were really quick. I wanted to see it for myself." She smiled up at him. Lee couldn't help but feel some pride that others believed that he was good at something he worked really hard at. "I'm Naru, by the way. Who are you?" Lee stood up straighter and puffed out his chest.  
"My name is Lee. It is nice to meet you, young one."  
"Same here. I saw you training. You're really good." Naru complimented him. A part of her was amazed that he was already this far ahead in taijutsu without any help from G**. But she already knew he was a genius at hard work.  
"Thank you, young Naru. I hope to become a great shinobi one day. I must train hard for that to happen. Since I cannot perform ninjutsu and genjutsu I will do it solely with taijutsu." Lee stated with absolute determination.  
"Hey I think that's great. I believe that you can become a great shinobi. You could probably become the greatest taijutsu artist ever." Lee was once again swept away by the girl. He couldn't help but feel great happiness that someone believed that he could do it. No one had ever believed that he could make it, yet this girl that he had just encountered believed. Though it had only been a few minutes since they had met, this encounter had a huge impact on Lee's life. "But aren't you bored training all alone? My friends and I are meeting up later, and we all train together sometimes too. Want to join us?" Naru asked him.  
"I cannot deny such a heartwarming invitation. I will gladly join you and your friends." Lee answered. Naru grinned at him and told him where they would meet. With a final wave she ran off.  
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Naru had made it back to the training ground to find that everything had been set. She was overjoyed that she had gotten Tenten and Lee to join but no matter how much she searched she couldn't find Neji. There was a good chance that he was at the Hyuga estate but Naru couldn't just walk in there. Well she could but she would rather leave that for another day. She leaned against a post as she waited for her friends to arrive. So far Sasuke was the only one who had arrived. When she heard someone approaching, she looked up to find Hinata arriving with an eight year old Neji on her heals. Naru couldn't believe her luck. So Neji would end up joining them after all. As she approached to greet them she could just barely understand what they were saying.  
"Umm..Neji-nisan...you don't...have to follow me...I'm with my...friends."  
"But Hinata-sama I must protect you. It is my duty." Wow even now Neji was still a stiff. Naru didn't know why she expected anything more from him. Though even if he was still overly serious about everything, Naru couldn't help the overwhelming joy she felt at seeing him alive. She practically skipped over to him, and with such a huge grin on her face Neji started backing away from her.  
"Hey you're Neji right? Are you related to Hinata? Want to play with us?" Naru held out her hand. Neji just tensed up though.  
"How dare you call Hinata-sama without any honorifics? She is heir to the Hyuga clan and deserves your respect" Neji demanded. Naru couldn't help but roll her eyes at him, which made him angrier. She had forgotten just how prideful Neji was in the beginning. At least this time she was happy that instead of resenting Hinata, he wanted to protect her. Nonetheless he should still dial down the whole duty thing, at least a little.  
"I call her Hinata, because she's my friend." She looked at him like he was missing some screws. "Since you're staying why not play with us, instead of just standing there looking bored."  
Neji really did not know what to do. The child part of him wanted to join in and play with the other kids. He didn't get many chances to play with other children. The other children in the branch family didn't want to play with him because they believed he was too close to the main family. And just until recently he wasn't allowed to play with his cousin Hinata because he was a branch member. Neji noticed that a lot of things around him were slowly changing.  
Something strange had been happening within the Hyuga estate recently. A few weeks back his uncle, Lord Hiashi, had declared that the two branches were joining. Ever since then interactions between the two branches were encouraged though it was still a bit awkward. He and his father now frequently visited his uncle and Hinata. He also noticed a difference in his father. He seemed a lot happier and it wasn't uncommon for his father and uncle to be together. This also meant that he and Hinata would also now meet frequently. He had quickly found that she was extremely shy and gentle, but despite this she would become the leader of the Hyuga one day. And though there was no branch family anymore, he still felt an urge to protect and support his cousin.  
The other side of Neji wanted to refuse based on his pride. Playing recklessly with other children just wasn't done. He had an image to uphold as a Hyuga. But the situation was throwing him for a loop. This tiny girl seemed the very opposite of anything he was used to. She was load, boisterous, and way to energetic. He honestly didn't know what to do; it was too much for his eight year old mind to comprehend. Plus she seemed to be friends with an Uchiha. The Hyuga and the Uchiha had always been rivals. They held two of the most powerful eyes in the world and the two clans were always competing over whose eyes were better. But underneath the rivalry both clans held deep respect for one another, not a fact that would ever be publicized. Neji didn't want to lose his pride by outright agreeing to play so instead he decided to take another route.  
"I would like a chance to prove myself better than an Uchiha, so I agree to play with you." Naru inwardly snickered at how red Sasuke's face got at that. But before he could say anything, she pushed him aside. As he stumbled back, he snarled at her but she mouthed 'play nice' to him. That was until the next words came out of Neji's mouth.  
"I must also prevent Hinate-sama from picking up your barbaric ways." Ok now he was going to get it. She marched up right up to him and was about to sock him a good one but before she could Sasuke grabbed her arms from behind. She could hear him snickering from behind her.  
"Were you not the one who just said play nice?" He said in between snickers.  
"Shut up and let me go you teme. I'm so going to teach this arrogant jerk a lesson" She yelled while struggling to get free.  
"You know you're just proving his point, right?" Sasuke snickered. Hinata walked up to her.  
"I…apologize for Neji-niisan...he didn't mean to offend...Right Neji-niisan?" Hinata stuttered.  
"Hmph" Neji turned away. Naru clenched her teeth. Oh he was going down later. But for now she couldn't ignore Hinata's pleading look, so she decided to let it go. She would have plenty of opportunities later to make him pay. The evil grin on her face had the other three kids backing away from her. Luckily they were saved when the rest of their friends started to arrive.  
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**Hinata namakazi &amp; Phantom &amp; Random is random:** Thank you. I'm glad your enjoying this story.

** :** Because that look is all powerful. Mwhahahah. But seriously have you ever been on the receiving end of one of those looks. I have three young nephews *Shudders* trust me it works. I also dont plan on making it a ita/naru pairing.

**Akrisakara:** Thanks. And I know right. In my humble opinion: Lil Naru is AWESOME!

**Spirit1328**: lol I'll try

**EmpressLupin:** Thanks and I plan too. I have a pretty good idea of who she's going to end up with and I think your like who. But it wont happen wont happen anytime soon.


	15. Chapter 15: The First Gathering

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You Aelliea, LizHarris, argooo1, Cjkhaos, kingshadow108, twirlgirl4life1, Merula Aeolus, SkypathStarshadow, cheunsha, sakurakinomoto520, darkfrost154, kyuuo, Terisa-Umi, XLoVeIsPaInFuLX, molly20009, DigitalGirl490, Ruri7533, Sexta, ZabuzasGirl, Dendule95, clizasanimeluver98, GoldGreen, and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 15

The gathered eleven looked at each other in confusion. Naru hadn't told them anything other than to meet here. Plus three of the gathered weren't even in their class. Not knowing what to do they naturally separated into groups of one or two. Shikamaru laid down to watch the clouds while Choji sat beside him and ate some chips. Kiba was playing fetch with Akamaru. Shino was gathering and communicating with his insects. Ino and Sakura were giggling while watching Sasuke, who was doing his best to hide from them. Hinata was off to one side playing with her fingers with Neji standing with his arm crossed beside her. Lee was doing pushups rapidly and Tenten was leaning against a tree while twirling a kunia with her finger. When Naru saw the tiny groups she sighed. This really had to change. She took in a deep breath.

"HEY GUYS!" She yelled loudly. Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her while slightly covering their ears. She gave them a wide smile.

"Dobe, why did you call us all here?" Sasuke asked first.

"Hehe, well I thought of a game and I wanted us all to play it together." The others looked at her like she was crazy.

"Oh come on. It'll be really fun." She gave them her best pleading face. Her friends shook their heads at her but agreed.

"Cool, see that flag up there." She pointed to a big orange flag hanging from a branch, high in a tree. "In this game you have to get the flag to win."

"That seems to easy." Kiba scoffed.

"Hehehe I already set up traps for you guys. So you'll have to work together if you want to have any chance of getting the flag. Plus I have some additional rules. Since I already know where all the traps are this game will have an added twist. Meaning this game will be me against all of you."

"Wait that doesn't seem fair to you Naru." Sakura spoke up. Naru smiled devilishly at her.

"Trust me, this game will actually be harder for you rather than for me." She took out eleven orange ribbons and started to hand them out to each of her friends. "Each of you will have this ribbon tied around your arms. It'll be my job to try to get this ribbon off of you. If I get your ribbon then your out of the game. If I capture four ribbons at any time, than I automatically win. Got it?"

Her friends looked at her like she was crazy. Most of them shivered at the look on her face. Some of them had been around her long enough to recognize it for one that meant nothing but trouble. Some of them sighed. Why in the world did they agree to do this again? Right it was because she had some screws loose, so they actually feared what she would do to them if they actually had the nerve to refuse her. They had seen enough of her pranks to know what happened to people who went against her. Tenten, Lee, and Neji who knew very little about Naru decided to play for they didn't fully understand the predicament they were in. Unfortunately they only saw a harmless little girl asking them to play a game. If only they knew the truth, but their fates had been decided the second they met Naru.

Naru on the other hand had a maniacal smile on her face. She was snickering on the inside for what she had planned for them.

**"****You are having way to fun with them Kit."**

**"****What its just a little fun. Going against me will force them to work together. They'll have to or else they wont have any chance of getting past what I've laid out for them."** She snickered. **"Plus if I get a few laughs out of it all the better."** Kurama grinned.

**"****I've underestimated of how cruel you can be sometimes. It seems I'm rubbing of on you."** He chuckled, completely proud. Once upon a time Naru would have completely been horrified at that statement, but now she couldn't help but smile at her partner. She was pulled away from their conversation when she noticed that the other were looking expectantly at her, ready to go.

"The game will start when I say go. Good luck, you'll need it." She snickered out loud this time. "Ready...Set...GO!" The second she said go they all scattered running towards the flag at top speed. Well all of them but one. Shikamaru was yawning while walking slowly forward. He saw no point in putting in so much effort on the get go. Naru had mentioned traps and he had no doubt that she had meant it. Running forward recklessly would prove to be futile. He yawned again thinking how troublesome this game was. That was until he saw the glare that Naru was giving him. Shikamaru felt terror running down his spine. He had learned the hard way not to mess with Naru when she was giving that look. It promised retribution that would last for days. He wasn't even this scared of his mother and that was saying something. He sped on ahead to catch up with the others praying that she wouldn't catch him.

Meanwhile the other were already facing obstacles. When Naru had mentioned traps, they didn't think she meant anything like this. There were hidden trip wires everywhere. When Kiba tripped one, a dozen or so rocks came hurling at him, he barely escaped getting hit by them. Not to mention the other traps that swaited them. Ino fell into a deep pit while Sasuke was hanging upside down by a rope. Neji and Hinata believed that they were safe with their Bakugan but even if they were able escape one or two another trap awaited them. They weren't the only ones, for the next twenty-five minutes a trap was going off every few minutes. Thirty minutes since the beginning of the game, all eleven of them were covered in dirt and panting heavily. Finally Shikamaru called them all to a halt.

He sighed "Look, running around blindly forward isn't helping us. We need to work together. This is only going to work if we have four teams. Team one will scout ahead for any traps, team two will disable them, team three will be in charge of getting the flag and team four will be on the look out for Naru and stall her. Neji and Shino will be team one for Neji's Bakugun and Shino's bugs will be the best for finding the traps. Tenten, Sakura and Choji will be team two for you guys can work quickly and efficiently at disarming them. Lee, Ino, and Kiba will be team three for you guys can reach the target quickly. Sasuke, Hinata, and me will be the forth group. Sasuke is the best qualified to fight with Naru, while Hinata keeps a look out and I will immobilize her if I can." Some of the group didn't look practically happy but they all nodded that it was a good plan.

Meanwhile someone was watching them high on top of a tree unnoticed. Naru was smiling as her friends started to come together.

**"****See I told you they would come together eventually and work as a team."** Naru told Kurama smugly, truly proud her friends progress.

**"****Hmph, so they aren't completely useless. Well they are smarter than you in any case, though that isn't much of an accomplishment." **

**"****Shut it you big furball" **Naru said irritably. The big fox just chuckled. Naru decided to ignore her irritating partner for now and go back to focusing on her friends. She waited till they were around three minutes ahead and then jumped to the ground. Truly ready to begin the chase.

* * *

Shikamaru, Hinata, and Sasuke had done an impressive job on delaying her. Hinata had quickly spotted her and while Sasuke engaged her, Shikamaru caught her with his shadow. But Shikamaru just didn't have the chakara to hold her for long. She waited him out till he had no choice but to let her go. The second she was free she dived for Sasuke's band for he was closet to her and snatched it off his arm. With him out she ran to Shikamaru who was still suffering panting against a tree because of chakara exhaustion. He didn't have the strength to fight off her assault and she was able to get his band too. The only one left in the group was Hinata. The truth was Hinata just didn't have ability to fight her off yet but she did impressively deflect her hands a few times before Naru could snatch her band too. With all three of them out, she raced on ahead only needing a single ribbon to win. As she passed threw the forest she noticed that most of her traps had been disabled. She smiled that her friends had done such an impressive job. She was moments away from them now for they were within her sights. They were inches away from the flag. Naru raced forward with team four following her. Choji was the closest to her so she jumped towards him and was seconds away from grabbing his ribbon when Lee grabbed the flag. At that the game was over. They had won. The Konoha twelve all collapsed on the ground.

Naru pouted as she laid on the ground. She really did hate losing but as she looked at her friends faces she smiled. She started to laugh. It had been so long since she had gotten to play with all of them like this, so long since she could actually act like a kid like this.

"Told you it would be fun." The forest was filled with the sound of her laughter. Her friends looked disgruntled at her. She called this fun? They were all covered in dirt and sweat and none of them could move a muscle. They felt like they had barely made it out alive thanks to her traps. She had put them trough hell in this game of hers and she called it Fun? They had all suspected it before but now it was official, she was certifiably insane. They really wanted to be mad at her but as they looked at the pure joy on her face, they couldn't help but smile a little themselves. Her joy was infectious and they all started to laugh a little which soon grew into full blown laughter. A little part of them realized that it was true they did have fun in this game of her, even if it was hell. They themselves might have been a little crazy.

* * *

Kakashi bolted up on his bed. Something had woken him up but he couldn't see nor sense anything. He placed his mask back in place, and went to investigate. As he walked closer to Naru's room he identified it as the source. He quietly opened the door and peaked in. What he saw crushed him.

Naru was curled up into a ball in her bed and she was behaving restlessly as she slept. She was also whimpering a little. It was obvious she was having a terrible nightmare. As he got closer he heard her mumble something but he couldn't make out what she was saying. Kakashi had no idea what to do. Sure he suffered from his own nightmares, most shinobies did, but he had no idea of how to comfort someone else. He reached out and gently shook her. She shot up in her bed. She was breathing heavily and when she looked up he could see tears welling up in her eyes. Kakashi felt as if someone squeezed his heart with a fist. She turned away from him and looked in a different direction. He saw her little fist clench up as she tried to calm herself. It was as if she refused to let her tears fall.

Kakashi couldn't do anything else but gently pull her towards him and let her rest against him. She froze at the contact and tensed up but then she gradually started to relax. Soon he could hear tiny whimpers and feel his shirt getting wet as she wrapped her tiny arm around him. Not long after he noticed she had completely stilled. When he looked down he noticed that she was asleep. She had his shirt clenched tightly in her tiny fists and as he tried to free himself, it became apparent that she wouldn't let go. He sighed and laid down next to her.

As Kakashi laid there, he was unable to fall asleep. He wondered what had made little Naru cry. He had never seen her this heartbroken before and he wondered what it had taken to bring her to this point. While it would have been normal for anyone to break down after the encounter she had in the woods but for some reason he didn't believe that to be it. One reason was that unfortunately Naru was no stranger to life threatening situations, she had faced many of those from the villagers. Another reason that today was the forth night since it had happened, if she would have broken down wouldn't it have happened sooner. It might have been a late reaction, but Kakashi just had a feeling that that wasn't it. No he felt it was something more, something that had completely shook her, he just didn't know what. He sighed. He would have to keep a closer eye on her, but for now he needed some sleep if he wanted to keep up with her. He pulled up her blanket to cover both of them, closed his eye, and fell asleep.

Unaware to the two of them, someone else was watching them. Kurama sighed. His kit had been having another nightmare. She had been getting them frequently since the start of the war. For he was mentally linked with her, he could she her dreams and it made him sigh. They were about something that Naru feared the most. That everyone she ever cared about would died right in front of her and she couldn't do anything about it. These dreams were hard on her when she older but now that her emotions were regressing into a kids it was especially trying on her. She no longer had the emotional stability to keep her emotions in and deal with her fears on her own. He knew that if she was her normal self she would never have broken down like this in front of anybody but he couldn't help but be thankful that she had and that Kakashi had been their to comfort her. He hated how she tried to keep everything bottled in, he feared that it would destroy her one day. Now she finally would have some emotional support. He tried but he just couldn't grasp human emotions enough that he could support her. He sighed again as he laid her head down on his paw and joined his partner in sleep.

* * *

Announcement: After this chapter I will be PM'ing everyone who reviews. This way I can get back to you guys sooner. The one reviews that I will show here from next chapter on are FAQs people ask or PM me about and Guest reviews. Just to make this clear: I ABSOLUTELY LOVE REVIEWS!

ZabuzasGirl: I'll try.

bunnyguest: Thanks. As for Kakashi spying, haven't really thought about it it, but that might be a good part to add. Thanks for your review.

buterflypuss: I made her younger for two main reasons. One reason was that When i was initially planning this story many of the earlier chapters were going to be dedicated to Naru's interactions with her friends when they were children. While I wanted Naru to be really young as to raise less suspicions about her drastic change in personality and abilities and to give her a lot of time to develop and start changing things, to me it didn't make sense to leave her friends as the same age as her. If they were five they simply wouldn't be able to keep up with her, and I didn't want that. I wanted to make them more physically and mentally ready to interact with her. But even so I didn't want to add to big off an age gap in between them so I left it at two years apart. Let me know if this is making any sense because I really don't know if it is. The second reason I made her younger than the others is simply to motivate them to improve more. I feel like if they watch someone younger than them do better than them it would push them to train and advance themselves. Or just piss them off into wanting to beat her. (I know i would be pissed for I hate losing to people younger than me...which i do often) I hope I answered your question.

Littlest1: Thanks. I knew that she was distantly related to Tsunade but I didn't know that her mom was part of the main family. Thanks for info.

wind dancer1981: Thanks for the encouragement

DigitalGirl490: I'm sorry to say that it will not be Sas/Naru. While I plan on making them great friends and rivals, I honestly don't see them together in this fic. But that doesn't mean that you wont see more Sasuke and Naru interactions because they're will differently be some. And im confused about the "Really Naru?" part


	16. Chapter 16

I know I'm getting slower and I apologize for that. Theirs a lot happening around me lately and I haven't really had the chance to write. Plus I feel like I should warn you guys that I have a very poor immune system and I often fall sick, which happened this weekend. (If any part of this chapter seems off I blame the fever. Lol. (my best excuse ever for poor writing)),

Lately many people have been asking about pairings and I will finally partially enlighten you. Yes there will be a pairing but it will not be for a long, long time and will be a very minor part of the story. I don't think I would be able to right a good pairing if my life depended on it. I know some of you want it to be a surprise of who it is and the rest of you want to know so in response to that I wont announce it here now but if you review or PM me asking about it, I'll PM you about the answer.

Once last thing before I get to the story. I need a good alias for a disguised Naru and cant think of anything but the common ones (like fox). If anybody has any suggestions please let me know.

*Looks at fav/foll with mouth gaping open. Gets on her knees and bows repeatedly while chanting, "I am not worthy"* Thank You Anubis eye, CrystallizedSiren, EwilanO, Ebrahimhejres, HakuMomo, ReneeGardens09, Velzon, LiquidCrystal, Xanxux, nedrag94, orihara alice, windfox90, tiniswinis, wolfmoon30, I love cute things, MerlinMagia, NeoMatrixj2, NoelleShadows, RadonMax, Shadowmoon97, VelvetKissAtMidnight, moonserenity82, LadyRandomness, Yami no Kaze, KHR1827, Stazzy241, anex4725, techi1590, JustImagineXx, SeekersTF4, The Truth I Only Know, DisGamerChick, Feather Lies, MissMia8218, Psycoticat, IceEmoVampire, lovleydragonfly, NexUmbra, Rednecks Love Anime Too, and for all the people who previously foll/fav my story. It means a lot to me that people are actually enjoying what I wrote.

**Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me.**

Chapter 16

Naru wanted to pull her hair out in frustration. Once again she was doing those dreaded D rank missions and it was killing her. She had thought they were a thing of the past, oh how wrong she was. Kakashi handed her Drank missions every time she was free from school and not training. They involved walking dogs, weeding peoples yards, cleaning up the river, and every other imaginable chore. Her only saving grace was that he allowed her to use her shadow clones, but because of it he usually took on multiple Drank missions a day for her. She had a feeling that the man was trying to torture her in retaliation for her pranks. Well she would show him, he would pay for this one day if it was the last thing she ever did. She started laughing evilly as she out picked up another can from the river bank. Kakashi who had been reading his book raised his eyebrow at it. Sometimes he questioned her sanity.

"I would hurry up if I was you Naru, its going to be night soon." Kakashi informed her as he watched the sun setting. It was time to call it a day for he had a mission later. He sighed. He was going to have Kurenai watch her while he was gone for a few days, but at the last minute she was called away on a mission. In fact all his friends were gone on missions, so until they got back she was on her own. He shuddered at what she would do on her own. He noticed that Naru was done so they headed back to the apartment.

Kakashi went to his room to get ready for his mission. Naru sent a clone to clean her room. She was planning on spending the time Kakashi was away on training. She planned to spend the next few days isolated in the forest to practice without prying eyes watching her. Her clone would replace her here until she came back so no one questioned her disappearance. Since she didn't plan on coming back until Kakashi returned she sealed her own gear into a simple storage scroll. She packed away some kunia, shurikens, some jutsu scrolls, extra clothing, and many ramen flavored shinobi energy bars. She strapped the scroll underneath the sleeve of her shirt and settled into the living room waiting for Kakashi to leave. As usual he was taking forever so she decided to practice some simple jutsus while she waited for him.

She practiced henging into small items to see how well she could do it and for how long she could hold it. When Kakashi entered she was henged into a shuriken on top of the glass table. She was going to release the jutsu when Kakashi grabbed her and a few other shurikens that were resting on the table and shoved her in his weapon holster. Naru cursed. There was something that Naru had forgotten about henging into small inanimate objects. It forced your organs to shrink and scrunch up, which was why it wasn't often used except for disguises even if it was a rather low level jutsu. When Kakashi had grabbed her he had unintentionally blocked her airway, forcing her to become unconscious. Now normally when a shinobi was unconscious his/her jutsu was released but Naru was a special case. She always had trouble with simple jutsu so when she used them she used an unusually high amount of chakra. Meaning even without her providing more chakra, the jutsu had enough chakra to continue working. Which was why she wasn't unhenged and was blissfully unaware of what was happening.

Kakashi was fully ready to leave, he walked past Naru's room and saw her cleaning up the place. Thank god for small favors.

"Yo, I'm leaving. Please, please, please stay out of trouble." He begged as he headed to the door. He didn't wait for a response because he feared what her answer would be. He left to meet up with his team.

* * *

In front of the gate four figures waited. They were all wearing masks that concealed their identities and were wearing standard ANBU gear.

"Where in the world is he!? I'm getting sick of waiting." Snake complained.

"Calm down Snake, you know the captain is almost always late." Bear cautioned her.

"Tsk. One day I'm going to send my snakes after him for all the grief he puts us through." Snake muttered. The rest of them couldn't help but chuckle at that image. Not a minute later Hound arrived.

"Ready to go?" He asked nonchalantly. Tenzo had to physically restrain Snake from attacking him.

"Snake." Bear warned. Snake settled down but not without practically hissing at the captain, who chuckled nervously.

"I'll take that as a yes." The rest of the group nodded and they raced ahead.

* * *

14 hours later

The five ANBU members crouched down on top of a small hill overlooking a fairly large facility. Hound turned towards Tenzo.

"There seems to be hundreds of people inside. But less than half of them seem to be shinobi and only a handful are high level ones." Tenzo reported. Hound nodded. Weasel handed him a blue print, which he unrolled infront of them.

"Our objective is to get any information relevant to the recent number of assassinations on high profile political figures, including the assassinations of one of the daimyo's son." Hound briefed them. He pointed to a room in the middle of the facility. "This is the control center, it is highly likely that the information we need will be here. But as such it is most likely the most highly guarded room as well. Does everyone understand their roles?" He looked around and they all nodded.

The five quickly disguised themselves. They jumped unto an incoming wagon and as soon as it made it inside the compound and past the inspection they jumped off. The quickly hid in the shadows and stealthy made their was towards the control center, avoiding being seen by anyone. When they finally reached their destination they hid behind a corner. Hound motioned Snake and Weasel forward. They nodded and quickly made their way towards the four guards manning the door. They knocked them out before the guards even had time to think. Weasel put them inside a genjutsu so that they wouldn't wake up anytime soon. Tenzo, Bear, and Hound walked up to them. Tenzo opened the door gently and found the room dark. They quietly made their way inside. Hound stilled as he entered.

Warning bells were going off on his head signifying that something was wrong. But he was to late, the door was slammed shut behind them and bright light suddenly flooded the room. It took a minute for their eyes to adjust to the change and when it did Snake cursed. They were surrounded by shinobi. Nothing could be discerned about the shinobis for they were all wearing long black cloaks but the most worrying part of their attire was the gas masks they were all wearing. A dozen of the shinobies threw silver canisters their way. When they hit the ground a green gas escaped and filled the room. Hound could hear Snake cursing behind him and he didn't blame her. Seconds later he fell to the floor. The last thing he saw before he became unconscious was the blurry image of a man standing over him.

* * *

The first thing Kakashi felt as he came to was the cold chakara cuffs that were surrounding his hands. He looked up to search his surroundings. They were in a dim room surrounded by machinery. He was chained to a wall as was his team. They weren't up yet. Their weapons and masks had been taken and Itachi's eyes were covered with a blindfold. Kakashi cursed. These guys had known they were coming and had information on them. They could have only known this if someone had leaked it to them, and less than a handful of people knew about this mission. Kakashi cursed again at the possibility of a spy or traitor hidden within the village. His teammates began to stir around him. He looked up as he heard a door slam. A man walked up to him. Kakashi analyzed him so he could remember him for later. He was in his mid thirties, had black hair, a short beard, and green eyes. He walked quietly and in a way that suggested combat training. Kakashi had no doubt that this was an experienced shinobi and would be hard to beat.

"So you're awake. Good." The man drawled. Kakashi said nothing, not wanting to reveal anything to this man.

"Not talking? Well can't say I blame you. If I was in your shoes I wouldn't either." The man mused looking amused. Kakashi felt slight irritation run through him though he didn't show it. This man was deliberately taunting him in a subtle way. He wanted something, but Kakashi didn't know what.

"Mandin-sama" A man in a black clock with his face covered appeared behind the now identified Mandin. He whispered something in his ear and Mandin nodded to him.

"It seems I have to go but it was nice meeting the infamous Copy-nin Kakashi. I hope you enjoy our hospitality. You'll be here for awhile." Mandin chuckled and left.

"That guy gives me the creeps." Anko said angrily. She struggled against the cuffs.

"Can't argue with you there." Yamato agreed. Kakashi nodded. He was trying to analyze the situation they were in. He didn't doubt that they would be able to escape at some point, each of them had a special skill set that would ensure it. But things weren't quite adding up and that worried him, and even if they were able to get out alive he doubted that they would be able to complete the mission. That man Mandin, especially worried him. There was something about him that set Kakashi on edge. His thoughts were interpreted when he heard a loud bang from above. He looked up and his mouth fell open. Please someone tell him that he wasn't seeing what he seeing. His luck couldn't be that bad.

* * *

_20 min earlier in a different room in the facility_

Naru woke up feeling groggily. Why was it so dark? Oh ya she was still inside the weapon poach henged as a shuriken. She couldn't hear anything so she guessed that Kakashi was asleep. Perfect, this could be her chance to get away before he noticed that she had been dragged along with him. She released the henge and found herself in a dark room.

**"****Fire illumination" **A tiny flame appeared and danced on top of Naru's palm. This was a great technique for the fire didn't burn and provided sufficient light. The room she was in seemed to be an armory of some sort. There were rows and rows of weapon stored on shelves. She looked at the table that Kakashi's weapon pouch was resting on and froze. There were five ANBU masks on it as well as some weapons. Naru instantly recognized one of the swords as Itachi's, anybody would after being on the wrong side of it constantly and mercilessly. She shuddered at the memory of Itachi starting her Kenjutsu training, that preteen, while usually calm and generally nice, could be extremely sadistic when it came to training . Naru knew something was wrong. Kakashi and Itachi wouldn't have left their weapons lying around. And no ANBU member would ever leave thier mask lying out in the open like this, especially on a mission.

She heard a sound of someone talking behind the door so pressed her ear against it to find out what they were saying.

"Those Konoha ANBU suck don't they? They fell for the trap so easily." Naru gritted her teeth realization falling upon her. She couldn't hear anything else for the men were walking further and further away from her. She couldn't stay here any longer, she had to do something. She put on Kakashi's mask to hide her identity if someone caught her, it was to large for her face but it would have to do. She strapped Kakashi's weapon pouch to her leg and Itachi's sword to her back. She sealed everything else on the table into her scroll. She tried to leave through the door but it was locked. Her face scrunched up as she wondered how she was going to get out out of here without being caught. As her eyes roamed around the room she grinned as she spotted her way out of there.

* * *

Present time

Kakashi looked wide eyed as a small figure jumped down from the vent and infront of them. Even with the dog mask on, Kakashi had no trouble identifying the girl in front of them. How in the world was she even here? Her identity was confirmed when she pushed the mask up untop of her head. Naru's smiling face greeted them. At their incredulous looks, her face turned sheepish and she rubbed the back of her head.

"Would you believe that I lost my way on the path of life and a black cat lead me here?" Naru asked as she moved forward to take off Itachi's blindfold. Everyone but Kakashi, who's face had turned red, couldn't help but laugh at Kakashi's signature lines. Naru began dismantling their chakara cuffs with a kunia. Kakashi rubbed his wrist when they were free. He turned to glare at the girl who had no business being here, not that he wasn't thankful for her help.

Naru did the only thing she could think of. She grabbed Itachi and used him as a human shield as she hid behind him. Itachi looked behind him startled at first but then looked at her in amusement, Clearly finding the situation funny. From the look on Kakashi's face this was far from over. His eye practically screamed that she was in a world of trouble as soon as they got back to Konoha. She did her best to look at anything but at him.

"So who's the brat?" Anko asked interrupting the glare Kakashi was giving the said brat. Naru immediately bristled.

"Who you calling brat, stupid?" Naru yelled.

"Watch'a call me brat?" Anko glared at Naru. The two engaged in a staring contest and you could practically see the sparks flying out of their eyes. Ibiki slammed his fists into both of their heads. They both turned their glares to him while clutching their heads.

"Whats the big idea Ibiki?" "Watcha do that for?" Anko and Naru demanded at the same time.

"Shut it, you brats. Now is not the time for your childish spat. We already lost our chance to get any information and now we have to find a way out of here." He yelled at them while they continued to glare at him. He turned towards Kakashi and the two started making an escape plan.  
"Umm...by information do you mean these?" Naru pulled out a batch of papers that she unsealed from one of her scrolls.

On the way here she had spotted a room that looked like an office. Since she didn't know the exact reason why they were here, she decided on whim to take a look in case she found anything useful. The desk was full of papers, but as she quickly glanced through them, the word Konoha jumped out at her in multiple sheets. Naru wanted to just grab them all and run but if she had learned anything from Sai it was to never leave any evidence behind. So instead she grabbed the stack of blank papers from one of the shelves and used a techniques Tsunade ba-chan, in her infinite quest to get rid of paperwork, taught her.

**"Text copy Jutsu" **On the blank pieces of paper words started to appear. Soon she had an exact copy of every sheet of paper on the desk. She sealed them and went back into the vent leaving the room as she found it. Now as she handed the papers to Ibiki she snickered at the face Kakashi, Ibiki, and Yamato were making. She really wished she had a camera right about now to record it.

**"Careful brat. You'll blow your cover if you don't dumb down a little."** Kurama cautioned but then snickered. **"Wow those were words I never thought I'd say to you."** Naru mentally kicked him but agreed with with him just the same as she realized that he was right. She really needed to stop doing things that drew attention to herself. Ibiki handed the papers to Kakashi while nodding, indicating that they had the information that they had come for. Once again Kakashi leveled her with a stare, silently promising a long lecture and interrogation when they got home. Naru did her best to ignore him while hiding behind Itachi again. While they were in the were in the middle of their escape plan and not paying attention to her, she pulled out their masks and weapons from her seal.

Unfortunately Itachi had glanced her way as she did this and his eyes widened. She gave him a sheepish look and shrugged. She hadn't meant to reveal her training in seals just yet, for it would open up a can of worms. Well there was no use worrying about it for she couldn't really do anything about it now.

When the others had finished coming up with a plan, they look startled at seeing their weapon and masks laid out for them. They turned towards the girl, wanting to solve the mystery but decided to let it go for now, seeing that they had to get out of here. All of them dawned their equipment and made to leave the room. Naru hadn't really payed attention to the plan so she stuck close to Kakashi instead. She noticed that the others were slightly surrounding them as they moved forward.

Their luck turned for the worse when a shinobi saw them trying to escape and alarmed the others before they could knock him unconscious. They fought their way out of the compound with Itachi using his sharingan and sword, Anko using her snakes and quick movements to strike, Yamato using his wood jutsus to trap and imprison, Ibiki using his raw strength, and Kakashi using his sharingan and multiple jutsus. Naru on the other hand was frustrated because she couldn't show her real strength without drawing more questions, and Kakashi wasn't giving her any opportunity to attack for he kept shoving her behind him. If anybody was watching the battle they would see five ANBU operatives completely destroying the enemy and in the middle of the battle was a tiny girl pouting and sulking as the battle raged around her. As Kakashi once again pushed her away from battle, Naru developed a tick mark. When she tried to move forward once again when Kakashi was busy with a battle Itachi blocked her way and pushed her behind him as he struck down the enemy with his sword. Naru tick mark multiplied into three and her face turned red. You could practically see steam coming out of her ears at being pushed around. When the battle was over and the bodies of the either dead or unconscious enemy surrounded them, Naru finally exploded.

"Why couldn't I fight? I could have helped" She exploded. Her anger mostly directed at Kakashi but the others felt her ire as well.

"Now, now Naru. Calm down." Kakashi tried to calm her.

"Like a brat like you could do anything." Anko smirked. Kakashi's and Itachi's eyes widened at that. They waved their hands wildly gesturing her to stop talking, as Naru turned to glare at Anko.

"What did you just say? I could have so taken them all on." Naru declared.

"Ya ya, keep telling yourself that brat." Anko completely ignored Kakashi's and Itachi's waving hands.

"Why you-" Kakashi grabbed Naru before she could jump Anko.

"I think its time we headed back." Kakashi said as he hoisted Naru over his shoulder and started running in Konoha's direction. Ibiki hoisted up two captives and they quickly followed. Naru did not take well to being dragged along like this and the only thing that stopped her from struggling was that even she recognized that the rest were in full ANBU mode. So instead of kicking and screaming like she wanted to do she inwardly ranted at the injustice. Kakashi may have stopped her for now but she would have her revenge. Her brain plotted different and complex pranks she could preform on them. If anybody saw or heard her thoughts right now they would cringe. The distinct sound of evil laughter 'Mwahahahahaha!' echoed throughout the caverns of her mind.

But sadly it didn't take long for her mood to turn sour as she thought back on the battle. Once again she felt utterly useless. It gnawed at her that while everyone else fought around her she couldn't do anything to help and that fact was weighing down heavily at her. Instinctively she knew that it couldn't be helped for she couldn't really reveal her true strength but she still felt so powerless and useless. She wanted nothing more than to up her training but Kurama had repeatedly warned her that it would greatly stunt her growth if she wore down her body extensively at this age. She sighed. Since she had gotten to the past, she had felt restless at not being able to do anything. Every fiber of her being was telling her that she had to do more, but more what exactly she didn't know.

**"****Kurama what am I supposed to do?"** She asked her partner out of desperation for some answers. Kurama sighed.

**"****Only you can answer that Kit."**

**"****I was afraid you'd say that."** Naru sighed in turn.

**"****But-"** Naru perked up wanting desperately wanting to know what he would say.

**"****But what? You big furball."**

**"****Calm down you gaki."** Kurama growled at her in irritation but continued in a more subdued tone **"All I can tell you is that remember all what you wish to accomplish and you will gain your answer."** Naru hated how cryptic he was being. Why couldn't anybody give her a straight answer for once? But nonetheless she pondered on his words the rest of the journey.

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